


the one with violets in her lap

by y02mustang



Series: The Universe of Scout [4]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Scout the puppy, background sanvers, some au building here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-31 14:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15121115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/y02mustang/pseuds/y02mustang
Summary: "Lena…” Kara meets her gaze and Lena is stunned by the sadness she sees there, “I met the head of CADMUS. Their leader.” She chews on her bottom lip for a moment. “It’s Lillian.”-----Or, a retelling of season 2's Thanksgiving/Medusa storylines, without Mon-El.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for 2x07 and 2x08... except this is the Scout universe, so it's a bit AU - for example, no Daxamites come to Earth in this universe.
> 
> Note that this story is not as Scout-heavy as previous fics in the series in order to get some plot established, but there will be many more Scout-centric fics to come.
> 
> \-----
> 
> This is the fourth in a series, but you can probably get by without reading the others (if you want), just know that Lena has a dog named Scout and Kara is a dog trainer.

_the one with violets in her lap_  
_mostly goes astray_  
_-Sappho_

* * *

The woman paces, one well-manicured hand gesturing as she muses aloud. The men in the room are quiet, knowing better than to speak up, but when she prompts them for an answer and they don’t have any ideas, she sighs. 

“Get out.”

The chairs almost spin as they scatter out of the small meeting area. 

Only one man remains seated. 

“What are your thoughts?” she asks mildly. 

He leans forward and steeples his fingers. “I think I can get you what you need.”

Her eyebrow arches sharply. “You have a vial of Kryptonian blood you haven’t told me about?”

He chuckles. “No. I’ve worked with Superman in the past… if we can make him think I’m in trouble, we can lure him here.”

She taps her index finger against the scarred wooden table. “Then we just have to deplete his powers.”

“I’ve got an idea for that, too.” He smiles. “Their heat vision is probably the easiest way to get a burst of power expended. We’ll need to redirect it somewhere useful, of course, but if we can get him to use his heat vision for a strong burst, I think that will weaken him enough to draw some blood.”

She returns his smile. “Excellent.”

*****

Kara stands in the corner of the assessment room, watching carefully as the large collie mix investigates the box of toys. He finds a ball and pulls it out, gnawing on it for a moment, then flicks an ear toward Kara when she moves closer. She takes another step and he freezes, head lowering slightly and staring at her. She looks down and away. The dog gets to his feet and carries the ball to the opposite end of the room, curling up in the corner, chewing the toy methodically, keeping an eye on the woman. 

Kara writes the evidence of resource guarding on the paperwork and begins to describe a treatment plan, mentally scrolling through the fosters in her network and considering who might be able to help him. 

_“To the members of the House of El.”_

The clipboard clatters to the floor.

Kara presses a hand to her temple at the discomfort.

More words rattle in her brain, seeping into her ears from the ridiculously high frequency. 

The dog whines and tries to retreat further into the corner to escape the noise.

_“Or anyone else that can hear me. I need your help… please.”_

Kara’s fingers leave deep impressions in the metal table. 

_“I can’t… I can’t record much longer. My name is Jeremiah Danvers. Please find me.”_

Kara takes a deep, gasping breath when the broadcast ends and she can stand upright. Her hand is trembling when she pries it off the table but she removes her glasses without hesitation. 

She pushes the door open behind the front desk and when she confirms Winn is the only one there, she snaps, “Rocco’s write up is in the room. Trade something good for the chew toy, he’s a guarder, and get him in his kennel. I have to go.”

“Kara, is,” Winn begins, and then notices that she’s already beginning to unbutton her shirt. “Okay, got it. Be careful.”

“Thanks.” And she’s gone. 

She calls Kal-El when she’s in the sky. 

“Supergirl, what is it?”

“Did you hear that broadcast?”

There’s a pause and she can picture his frown. “No, what are you talking about?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m in South America helping after the quakes,” he explains, and she lets out a sympathetic breath. 

“Okay, well, there was just… a message broadcast on a high frequency. I can take care of it. I’ll come help you when I’m done?”

“I’d rather you stay closer to Metropolis and National City, but we can talk about it. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Stay safe.”

“You too, cousin.”

She hovers for a moment when the phone call is done, trying to focus on the source of the broadcast. There weren’t many places that had the power to send a message out at fifty thousand hertz and she suspects it came from within National City, given the strength of the signal when it found her. 

It’s been a long time since she’s listened for Jeremiah Danvers’ heartbeat. 

Almost twelve years. 

She extends her hearing, filters through the sounds of her city, discards them one by one, until the only thing left in her ears is a single heartbeat.

Her head snaps to the direction and she narrows her eyes, identifying the target. 

An abandoned hospital. 

It’s set apart from other buildings in the area, which means low collateral damage in the event her rescue attempt goes sideways. 

Keeping Jeremiah’s heartbeat in the back of her mind, she sets a course for the building.

She doesn’t find any guards outside which only tells Kara their defenses are probably all interior. She tries scanning the building with her x-ray vision but she doesn’t get very far before the lead paint coating the walls impedes her view. 

Ignoring the front door, she speeds through a side window and lands quickly, identifying a large staircase and long hallways, but the area seems deserted. 

She catches movement from the corner of her eye and takes a startled step forward. 

“J’onn?” She squints, as though there might be some reason her eyes would be playing tricks on her. “What are you doing here? You heard the message, too?”

They hadn’t talked about his abilities a great deal but she guesses the Martian received the broadcast. She smiles and relaxes her stance a little. His presence means the DEO should be providing backup. 

“The real question is, what are _you_ doing here?”

Kara tilts her head. “It’s Jeremiah,” she reminds him, “of course I’m here. We can work together on this, J’onn.”

“Together,” he snarls. “No, I don’t think so.” He stalks toward her and she moves back. “I should have locked you in that cage when I had the chance.”

An icy wave rolls over her. “You’re Hank Henshaw.” Her fists clench. The man responsible for Jeremiah’s disappearance in the first place, who blackmailed a family man with threats against his newly adopted daughter. “The _real_ Hank Henshaw.”

“More or less.” He circles her, looking for an opening, and she moves with him, waiting for the first strike. “That _thing_ from Mars stole my life, my identity, he took everything from me. Then CADMUS saved me.”

The cold gnaws at her gut. _CADMUS._ If this was a CADMUS facility, if it was CADMUS that had taken Jeremiah… _Rao, I should have asked Kal-El for help._ “And now you work for them.”

“Our missions align nicely. When I ran the DEO, we _hunted_ aliens. And we were good at it,” he remembers fondly. “Now CADMUS has inherited that glorious purpose, to eradicate alien life on this planet.”

“Good luck with that,” Kara growls, lashing out with a right hook, hoping she can eliminate whatever threat this man poses, find Jeremiah, and get out of this place. The knowledge that CADMUS is involved makes her skin crawl and she just wants to be gone.

His head moves with the blow, but just slightly. He stays upright, doesn’t stumble, doesn’t even lose his balance. He grins and locks his gaze on hers. “My turn.”

They trade punches and she knows something is wrong. She’s been putting true strength behind her attacks and as a human, even if they had somehow eliminated his ability to feel pain, he should still be suffering broken bones, but he’s returning every swing with one of his own. More than a couple are landing, hitting her with a force that should be impossible. 

His attacks _hurt_. They send her through parts of a wall and even halfway through the floor, dragging concrete as she slides. 

Finally, desperate, struggling in his hold as he grips her arm and draws back for another heavy blow, she lets loose with a blast of heat vision to his face. 

He stumbles back, but it’s more out of surprise than true pain. 

He should be _screaming_ but before the confusion can set in, she understands - he’s not human. Not completely, anyway. The skin around the left side of his face, where her heat vision was concentrated, melts away to reveal a cyborg underneath, the blue laser behind his eye shining steadily. She does a quick scan and finds he’s been remade entirely. 

On the surface, he looks like Hank Henshaw, and he probably has his memories and maybe his brain is even encased in that shiny skull, but everything beneath the skin is metal. 

“The real Hank Henshaw died in that jungle,” he says, accepting her shock with a cruel smile. “I am Cyborg Superman. Now _you_ die.” 

He slams his fist into the side of her head.

She collapses in a heap and everything goes dark.

*****

Kara groans when awareness begins to return, along with an ache she’s not used to feeling after a fight. She pushes up from the floor and takes in her surroundings. A steel cage in a dimly lit room, some metal tables set up with various tools she really doesn’t want to identify, and to her right, she realizes she has a neighbor in the next cell. 

His beard is scruffier than she remembers, his jeans and oversized t-shirt tattered in a fashion he would never wear of his own volition, but she listens for his heartbeat and falls to her knees beside him when she _knows_ the rhythm. 

“Jeremiah,” she says, reaching through the bars, running her hands over his face. “It’s really you.”

“It’s me,” he confirms, smiling gently. “Where’s Kal-El?”

“He couldn’t come, there have been four earthquakes down in South America, it’s bad. He’s trying to help the rescue effort.” She doesn’t realize she’s crying until she tastes the salt against her lips. “Rao, I can’t believe you’re alive.” Her hands haven’t stopped moving, squeezing his shoulders, his arms, tracing a bit of grey in his hair, amazed that he’s real and alive and close enough to touch. 

Which means close enough to rescue. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

“You get _yourself_ out of here.” He grabs her arm. “Promise me. If you have a chance, you take it, okay? I… the people here, you aren’t safe.”

“Me?” She gets to her feet, eyeing the metal bars of the cage, assessing her opponent. “I’m taking you home.” She wraps her fingers around the bars and tries to pry them apart. They don’t budge.

“Nth metal,” Jeremiah explains, “from a planet called Thanagar. It’s unbreakable.”

“Of course,” she sighs. The irony of an organization vehemently against aliens using alien technology is not lost on her. 

The door at the end of the room opens and a woman glides in, three uniformed guards trailing behind. She’s wearing black slacks and a black dress shirt, her brown hair up in a neat bun. Slate grey eyes lock onto Kara the moment she enters and the woman walks directly toward her.

Kara watches Jeremiah shrink to the rear of his cell, almost cowering away from the woman, and she acknowledges the rage that flows through her veins, that whoever this woman is, she’s done enough to make Jeremiah fear her. 

“Supergirl.”

“Who are you?”

“I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced. I’ve seen you in the news… I don’t like the idea of you around my daughter.”

Kara freezes but hopes it isn’t obvious. “You’re Lillian Luthor… Lex and Lena’s mother.” The woman is tall and elegant and in any other circumstances Kara would be ecstatic to meet her girlfriend’s mother but this… this is just going to make things ridiculously complicated. 

“I’m many things,” the woman concedes. “A scientist, a doctor, a patriot, and, yes, a mother.”

“A liar, a kidnapper, a murderer. The head of CADMUS, but then, that’s just redundant.” She grabs the bars with both hands. “What do you want?”

“What are you to my daughter?” 

“I’m a friend,” she says. 

“I’ve heard that before,” Lillian sneers. 

Kara growls. 

“Years ago, Superman came to my son, Lex, and promised him the world. A new dawn for mankind, he said.” Lillian gestures with her hands as she speaks, not overly animated, but Kara watches closely, tracking the clench of her jaw or the narrowing of her eyes, trying to read what she can from the woman’s body language. “Lex believed him… and then he watched as your _kinsman_ infected this country with his propaganda, as his power became unchecked.” 

Lillian walks around the cage, Kara carefully following her every move, rotating around and trying to stay between Lillian and Jeremiah, who remains in the farthest corner of his cell. 

“When Lex tried to take that power back, to keep this world _safe_ , Superman convinced the world Lex was evil.” She shakes her head sadly. “My darling boy. My genius son. An _actual_ Superman, behind bars for life.” She pins Kara with a hard glare, nothing but disgust in her eyes as she gazes at the alien before her. “All because you and your kind will stop at nothing to poison the Earth.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“We’ll agree to disagree,” she says, moving near one of the guards, “but you’ll understand if I disbelieve your claim of friendship with my daughter. Here I thought Lena was more careful in choosing her friends.”

Kara grinds her teeth but doesn’t want to raise Lillian’s suspicions by seeming too defensive. 

“Although I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you. I expected Superman.”

“He’s busy.”

She smirks. “So we get the _junior_ superhero.”

Kara ignores the bait. “What do you want?” she repeats.

“Oh, so many things. I want you and your cousin gone. I want aliens back on their own planets where they belong. Ideally, I would like to keep a couple for experimentation and further development of bio-medical advancements here on Earth, but for now, I’ll start with just having you.” She trails her fingers down the reinforced metal. “I need you to express your powers.”

“Excuse me?”

Lillian rolls her eyes. “I’m going to instruct you how to use your powers so I can gather data.”

“No.”

Lillian doesn’t hesitate. She withdraws the Glock from the guard’s leg holster, pulls the slide back expertly, and sticks the barrel through the bars of the cage next to Kara’s. 

“No, don’t!” she cries, trying to get to the other cell to protect Jeremiah but having no luck.

“It’s up to you,” Lillian says easily. 

“Supergirl, don’t listen to her.” Jeremiah can’t keep eye contact with Lillian, but he glares at one of the guards defiantly, trying to be brave.

“What do you want me to do?”

Lillian smiles. “It’s simple.” The guard next to her opens a large case and picks up what appears to be a modified motorcycle helmet. “Heat vision this visor.”

Kara narrows her eyes. “Why?”

Lillian sighs and shifts the aim of the weapon to Jeremiah’s chest. 

“Okay, okay! I’ll do it.”

“If she so much as twitches a finger before I tell her to, he dies,” Lillian instructs.

The other guards draw their weapons and train them on the human hostage.

Lillian gestures to the guard and he unlocks the cell door.

All eyes are on her, waiting for her to try to escape or start an attack, but she keeps her gaze on the firearm pointed at her adoptive father and stands still when the guard places the helmet on her head. 

“Go,” comes the woman’s command. 

Kara calls forth a small burst and the visor absorbs it easily. She wishes she could bring it to Winn, he’d be able to sort out the design and mechanics and what Lillian wanted with the energy or what information she was collecting. 

“Again.”

Another three second fire. 

“No. All of it. I want you to deplete the solar radiation in your cells.”

Kara hopes the helmet hides the look on her face when it sinks in. Lillian wants her to solar flare. She feels herself panicking at the idea, she’ll be left powerless… How can she help Jeremiah escape if she can’t fly, if she can’t stop a bullet? 

She takes a deep breath and lifts her chin. It’s useless to try to rescue Jeremiah if she lets Lillian shoot him first, so she doesn’t really have an option. 

She can feel the heat behind her eyes and she just lets it loose. At the end, when she can feel herself weakening, less nausea and pain than Kryptonite but still an overall terrible experience, she knows she screams with the effort but everything is muted and fuzzy. 

Then she’s on her knees, collapsing, fighting for breath, hands braced against the floor. 

Lillian removes the visor and slides her fingers in Kara’s hair, grabbing a fistful and yanking her upright. 

Kara gasps. 

Lillian backhands her and she whimpers at the explosion of pain across her face. She can feel something trail down her chin and she thinks her lip must have split, which is a first, and hurts more than she expected. 

The hand in her hair is back and it’s more gentle this time, but a thumb smears the blood under her lip and her jaw throbs. 

“Good,” Lillian smiles, and Kara blinks up at her. “Just what I was looking for. Let's go.”

Before she can try to get to her feet, hands grab her under the arms and she’s dragged across the concrete floor. 

Much of the next indeterminate length of time is just a blur of pain. 

She knows she was hauled onto a table and immobilized, she has marks on her wrists and forehead to prove it, and at least two vials of blood were drawn. She doesn’t think anything was injected _into_ her, which is of some relief, but she has a vague recollection of Lillian prodding her with different instruments and noting what amount of force was necessary for each one to break the skin. 

Her forearms are crossed with raised welts and dark bruises and thin lines of dried blood. 

She expects to spend the next couple of hours being tortured, if she’s lucky. 

When the aching exhaustion is thoroughly setting into each bone, when the efforts of just struggling against leather straps leave her sore and weak, when she’s tried to call up any power she has, even super hearing, and come up empty, the straps are loosened. 

Then removed entirely.

The same two men drag her and throw her back into her cell. 

Before she passes out, she hears Jeremiah’s cell door swing open and she tries to cry out for him. 

*****

Kara comes to and spins away from the hand grasping her shoulder. She can’t stop the whine when her head throbs at the sudden movement. 

“Easy,” a voice says gently. 

“Jeremiah,” Kara breathes, wrapping her arms around his neck in as fierce a hug as she can manage, “I can’t believe it. Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?”

“No time for that now,” he counters. His hand is rough against her cheek but she leans into the touch. He jerks his chin to something behind him and Kara notices the guard on the ground. “He won’t be out long, we need to go.”

He pulls her to her feet and she gets a good look at the bruises on his face and she hates her weakness. She should be carrying him out to safety, not hobbling out with her arm over his shoulders. 

She follows his lead. “Alex is going to be so happy to see you. You’ll be so proud of her.”

“I’m proud of both my girls.” He squeezes her gently. “You look good in that suit.”

“We’ve missed you so much.”

She falls quiet when Jeremiah lifts an eyebrow and they maneuver carefully down a narrow hallway. There’s a locked iron gate and Kara frowns at it. It wouldn’t even be a distraction if she had her strength or heat vision or even freeze breath, but she’s injured and weaker than a human at this point so it’s a significant obstacle and she hates it. 

Jeremiah reaches into the pocket of his tattered jeans and pulls out a key card. He swipes it against the electronic lock and swings the gate open. “Here,” he says, pulling Kara’s cell phone from his other pocket, “I found this when I was looking for the key.”

Kara checks for a signal, finds nothing, and slips the phone into her boot. “We’ll call the DEO when we get out and they’ll send help.”

He nods slightly at the plan. “Tell Alex I love her.” 

He shoves Kara through the gate and slams it shut. 

“No!” She shakes the bars and tries to pull them apart but it’s useless. “No! Come with me, _please_. Please, you have to come with me. Jeremiah. I can’t leave you here.”

“Your powers came back quicker than they expected and you escaped,” he says, trying out the story he’s going to sell to Lillian. “I’ve been here for over ten years, Kara. I can buy you a little more time.”

“I will come back for you,” she whispers fiercely. “I swear it.”

“Go now.” He nods at her once more, then turns and hurries back down the way they came and doesn’t look back. 

*****

Kara isn’t sure where to go first. She met Lillian, she should talk to Lena. But she knows Jeremiah is alive and that means she should tell her sister, and probably the DEO. 

Alex wins, then the DEO, if only for the sunlamps. Then Lena, because Kara is exhausted and knows she can curl up and rest when she sees Lena. 

The first thing Kara notices when she’s back on the surface is that it’s dark, which means she must have been passed out for longer than she’d thought… or the torture lasted longer, but she’s going to avoid thinking about that. 

She pulls out her phone, sighs in relief when it finds a signal, then winces at the text messages that begin to come through - two from Winn and five from Alex. She calls her sister, beginning to stumble away from the facility. She doesn’t want Alex anywhere near CADMUS. 

Alex answers on the first ring. “Where have you been? Why weren’t you answering your texts?”

“Yeah, um, I didn’t have a signal. I need a ride.”

Alex frowns. “What’s wrong?”

“I blew out my powers.”

“Where are you?” The concern in her voice skyrockets at the words. 

Kara imagines she’s already on her feet and reaching for her car keys. “Um, can you meet me at Redding Park? I should be able to get there without too many people seeing me.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” Alex promises. 

The next number she dials is for the main operations center at the DEO.

“Vasquez,” the woman answers. 

“Agent Vasquez, this is Supergirl. I need you to locate my cell phone. There’s a CADMUS facility here and you need to send a team.”

“Ma’am, I’ve noted your location, but you’ll have to report to the Director to request personnel.”

“I’m on my way to do just that,” she sighs. “Can you put him on the phone?”

“Yes, ma’am. One moment.”

“Good evening, Supergirl.” 

She knows it’s J’onn but the voice is so similar to Hank Henshaw’s deep growl that she stumbles for a moment. “Director, I found a CADMUS facility. An agent is being held against his will and he needs assistance. You need to send a team.”

“You’re mistaken. We currently have no missing agents.”

She takes a breath. “It’s Jeremiah Danvers.”

There’s a long pause on the other end. 

“J’onn?”

“We’ll assemble a team,” he says, and she wonders what expression he’s wearing. “We have your location. Can you assist?”

“I don’t have my powers,” she admits, “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

He grunts. “You’re on your way in for treatment?”

“Yes. Alex is going to bring me.”

She expects a fight on the point, but he doesn’t hesitate. “Fine. We’ll get additional details then.”

He hangs up and she rubs her eyes. She’s tired. Everything hurts. No broken bones to contend with, which is nice, but her entire body aches and the more severe injuries throb with every step, as though to remind her of their presence, lest she forget. There’s a warmth growing under the sleeves of her suit and she suspects at least a few of the deeper cuts have broken open. 

She glances at her right forearm, squinting in the low light, and grunts at the stain. “Great,” she mutters, “that’s going to be a pain to wash out.” 

She tries to keep to less populated streets and wraps her cape around herself as she slouches in the darkness. It’s not so much that she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s injured, it’s that she can’t help anyone in her current state and she’d never forgive herself if someone saw her, in full uniform, and asked her for help, but she had to refuse and just walk away. 

Luckily, people either assume she’s a cosplayer heading home from some late night convention or a holdover from Halloween, and no one so much as tries to get her attention. 

She waits behind a stand of trees and watches when Alex’s car pulls into the parking lot at the entrance of the park. 

Kara answers her phone when it rings. 

“I’m here,” Alex says. 

“Okay, you can’t freak out.”

Her sister sighs. “Just get in the car.”

“You have to promise not to freak out.”

“Goddamn it, get in the car. I’m already freaking out.”

With a sigh, Kara approaches the car from an angle she hopes Alex won’t notice, then pulls open the passenger door and slips inside. 

Alex’s expression goes from irritated to frightened to stormy and dangerous in the span of one second. “What the _hell_?!” she demands, reaching for her. “Who did this?”

“We need to go to the DEO.”

“What happened?” She grabs the first aid kit from underneath her seat. 

Kara winces when Alex grasps her chin and dabs a disinfectant wipe at the split skin near her temple. “Please, Alex. I don’t want to say this more times than I have to.” _Especially since my lip is swollen._ “And I really, really need those sunlamps.”

“Kara…” Alex runs her thumb along her eyebrow, the one possibly non-bruised part of her face. 

“I’ll be okay, I promise.” She squeezes her sister's hand. “DEO, please.”

“That’s going to take us hours, can’t they send someone for you? Like a helicopter? You need medical attention.”

“Oh, there’s… they have a city headquarters. I’ll give you directions.”

“Oh.” Alex puts the car in gear. “No more bats?”

Kara’s chuckle fades into a hiss when the laughter pulls at her lip. “No more bats,” she confirms. 

*****

“I thought you said we’d have _hours_.”

Jeremiah puts his hands out to the side, palms up, rocking slightly as the van speeds down the road. “I was speaking from my experience with Superman,” he reminds her. “Supergirl probably reacts differently after a solar flare. Maybe she doesn’t stay depleted as long.”

Lillian frowns. “I should have kept the experiments going.”

He shrugs. “We decided on thirty-minute increments so you could track their progress, monitor the restoration of their powers. And I thought you agreed that we would let her go when her powers started to return - she’d rather run away to heal than destroy us.” 

Had it been Superman in that cell, Jeremiah knew he’d have had zero chance of convincing Lillian to release him; her hatred for Kal-El specifically was too great. But for Kara Zor-El, it was more hatred by association and that was slightly more manageable. An urgent chat before they placed him in the cell and Lillian agreed that feeding information to the DEO was more beneficial than simply torturing a Super.

“If she came to rescue you, why didn’t she take you with her?”

“She wasn’t strong enough to fly yet and I told her I would only slow her down.”

The woman runs the events of the last several hours through her mind, going over every angle. “We detained her, in a cell she could not escape. We were able to draw the vials of blood. Experiments were initiated, though they could not be completed. She believes you helped her escape.”

Jeremiah nods. 

A smile curls her lips. “Perfect.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara heals, Alex tries to process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many of you have guessed this one will be a little angsty, and you're right, but not much more than the actual episodes. Nothing too heavy in this one.

Kara sighs when the sunlamps flicker on and build to full strength. 

Alex stands at her side and Kara can see some of the tension leave her sister’s shoulders when the solar radiation slowly begins to heal the bruises on her face.

J’onn enters the room and crosses his arms. “What can you tell us about the facility?”

“It’s an abandoned hospital. I left through an underground connection, it’ll be within about fifty feet of where you located my phone. I don’t think there are any security measures, really, just a couple human guards with handguns and, uh, Hank Henshaw.” She blinks at J’onn and then looks away. “He calls himself Cyborg Superman.”

Alex snorts.

“Yeah, I don’t know, either. But he hits like a freight train, the cyborg part is no joke. He’s the biggest threat there. He said CADMUS found him in the jungle after that mission,” she says, and J’onn nods that he knows the operation she’s referencing, the one that was supposed to end in the Martian’s death. 

“But, okay,” Kara licks her lips and looks at her sister, “two other people are in there. Lillian Luthor, she’s the head of CADMUS. And Jeremiah.”

The vet’s face goes instantly pale and Kara’s hand shoots out to grab her shoulder. 

“Sit,” she says, urging her into a nearby chair.

Alex sinks into it on unsteady legs. “You saw dad?” emerges in a whisper.

“I saw him, I talked to him, I put my arms around him. He’s okay. He’s _okay_ , Alex. He saved me. He got me out of there.” Kara shakes her head. “Lillian made me solar flare, and I, she threatened him, I didn’t… then she took some of my blood. She kind of seemed like she was going to, I don’t know, conduct some experiments or something.”

J’onn’s frown deepens. 

“They put me back in the cell and they were taking Jeremiah next but I passed out, I couldn’t even...” She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “He overpowered the guard and got his keycard, then he helped me escape. I told him I’d come back for him. He said, he said he’d been there ten years already, and I promised I’d get him out.” She points a stern finger at J’onn. “You have to get him back.”

“The team is already on their way. Is there anything else you noticed? How did you know where to find them?”

Kara shrugs. “Jeremiah broadcast at fifty thousand hertz, I heard him. There must be a radio room in there somewhere. Then I just… listened for his heartbeat.” She flexes her fingers, feeling the sting of the wounds in her arms begin to ease. “Since she made me solar flare, I doubt Lillian has Kryptonite, but I don’t know what she wants with my blood.”

“He’s alive,” Alex exhales, as J’onn steps out for a moment to check on the operation.

Kara squeezes her shoulder gently. “He’s alive. He said to tell you he loves you.”

The redhead chokes back a sob and Kara slides off the table to put her arms around her sister, kissing the top of her head. 

“What are you doing?” Alex sniffles, pushing her away. “Get under those lamps.”

Grabbing Alex’s pinky with her own, Kara keeps a hold on her hand even as she shifts back onto the solar bed. They sit in silence, Kara providing what comfort she can, knowing they’re both trying to process the enormity of the situation. 

J’onn’s usual neutral expression is dour when he returns. “There’s nothing there,” he says, “they must have cleared out already.”

“Damn it! I’m sorry, Alex, I should have -”

“Let them hurt you some more? There was nothing you could have done, Kara. Dad,” her breath hitches on the word, “he wouldn’t want you to get hurt because of him.”

“Your sister is right. We’ll take it from here, Supergirl. You’ve helped as much as you can.”

“If you think I’m standing on the sidelines while you look for Jeremiah, you’ve got another thing coming.” Kara narrows her eyes at the man when he ducks his head. “Wait a minute, what aren’t you telling us?”

He shifts his weight. “We… suspected Jeremiah Danvers might be alive.”

“How long?”

It’s the closest to regretful she’s ever seen him. “Since you rescued me from CADMUS. That night, when I read Colonel Harper’s mind.”

“You _knew?!_ ” Kara explodes. “We should have been out there searching for him!”

“We suspected,” he corrects gently. “All we knew was that Harper had seen Jeremiah at one point, we didn’t know how recently or where. We’ve been trying to track him down.”

She feels Alex squeeze her hand, trying to communicate calm. She shakes her head, irritated at the delay. “You should have told me.” 

“We didn’t have anything concrete to offer,” J’onn tries to explain, holding up a hand. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up until we knew more.”

“You didn’t want to get our _hopes up_? You at least should have told me _CADMUS_ had him!” She slams her fist against the side of the table, hard enough to put a dent in it if she’d been at full strength, but instead she winces and pushes away the pain. “I could have been better prepared. I would have let you know before I went flying into a CADMUS facility completely blind so I could have had some _backup_.” 

J’onn concedes the point. “I apologize.”

Kara glares at him until Alex asks, “So now what?”

“We’re sweeping the hospital for anything we can use to track their whereabouts but we’ll continue scanning for any activity from CADMUS.”

“Hurry up and wait,” Alex translates.

J’onn frowns a little. “Nothing quite that passive.”

Kara huffs a sigh, unimpressed. “I’ll keep an ear out for him, in case he can get another message broadcast or maybe I can locate his heartbeat again. Just…” she rolls her eyes in frustration, “as soon as my superhearing is back.”

“We’ll keep a team on standby.”

“How kind of you,” she snarks. Alex squeezes her fingers and she sighs. “The best way to find Jeremiah is to work together, but I’m still mad at you.”

“Understood.”

She pokes her tongue against the sore spot in her mouth, pleased when the pain is gone, and she tests a smile, confirming the final facial injury has healed. Her powers aren’t back yet, she knows that will probably take another couple of hours, but there’s only a dull ache in her head and fading bruises and she can live with that.

“I have to talk to Lena,” she remembers, trying to scrape together the beginnings of a plan on how to approach _that_ specific conversation.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” J’onn states.

Kara scowls. “Why not?”

“She may be in on her mother’s plan.”

“Are you _kidding_ me?” She bristles at the accusation. “There’s no way.”

Alex sighs. “It’s late, Kara. At least wait until tomorrow.”

“You can’t… _Alex_ , you can’t seriously agree with him.”

She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know.” She sighs again as Kara releases her hand. “I mean, hang on, okay, I don’t think Lena would be involved, at least not wittingly. But maybe she still knows something. Look, Kara,” she says, when her sister’s face is flushing an angry red, “I’m still trying to get a handle on the reality where my dad is alive and being held captive by a Luthor. You said so yourself, Lillian has him.”

“ _Lillian_ has him, yes, because _CADMUS_ took him. Lena isn’t like them!”

“Or perhaps you’re too close to notice.” The glare she levels at J’onn makes him raise one hand in a conciliatory gesture. “Perhaps.”

Kara shakes her head. “No, you don’t get to second-guess her. You don’t even know her.”

“That’s true,” J’onn admits. “But I _do_ know her brother tried to kill Superman on numerous occasions, and by your own admission, her mother kidnapped Jeremiah Danvers ten years ago, not to mention kidnapping and torturing you tonight. That doesn’t give me much confidence in the Luthor name. Until we have evidence otherwise, we need to treat her with caution.”

“Evidence otherwise? What about innocent until proven guilty? I thought that’s how it worked in this country.”

“We’re not your average law enforcement agency.”

“Fine.” Kara sets her jaw. “Here’s your evidence: I love her.” 

Alex’s sigh is heavier this time. “Kara,” she whispers, pained. 

Their interactions with the DEO have been limited, mostly working with Supergirl on highly dangerous missions or complicated developments. They’re colleagues when necessary, though Kara takes a cue from her cousin and keeps a distance from the DEO as a whole. 

While Alex’s information on their dealings are limited since she isn’t privy to most of the missions, her protective streak kicks in and she worries that giving J’onn information about Kara’s relationship with Lena will provide the organization with leverage. 

J’onn crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m sure Superman defended Lex a few times, too.”

“I can see why Kal-El stopped working with you, even beyond the Kryptonite,” Kara growls. “I’m talking to Lena the moment I can fly again and you can’t stop me.”

The Martian’s eyes glow red. 

Kara shoves herself off the bed and puts her hands on her hips. Her head spins at the sudden movement and she wavers momentarily, steadying herself before demanding, “Seriously?”

Alex stands and steps between them. “Hang on a second,” she puts her hands out, “just wait, okay? You,” she points at her sister, “if you get off that solar bed one more time before you’re back to your usual self, I’m going to tell mom. And you,” she turns to J’onn, “the focus needs to be on Lillian Luthor, not her daughter.”

She waits until Kara situates herself under the lamps again and J’onn’s eyes fade back to their human color. “Now. It’s almost midnight. Kara, you can talk to Lena at a normal hour tomorrow, when you’re back to full strength. J’onn, I want your word, no more secrets.” Alex shakes her head before he can protest. “I know I’m not an agent, but you’re working with my sister to try to find my dad. I want to be in on this.”

Clearly displeased, J’onn glares down the hall for a moment, considering, but finally nods. 

“I want Winn’s help,” is Kara’s condition.

J’onn pinches the bridge of his nose. “Mr. Schott is already here far too often.”

“You’re going to tell me you don’t find his skills useful?” she counters.

“Skills, yes. Antics, no. The occasional weekend is plenty.”

“I’ll ask him, but if he wants, he gets to help. However much he wants.”

“We should have been doing everything we could from the beginning. We owe my dad the best effort.” Alex swallows. “The _best_ we have to offer.”

J’onn sighs. Sometimes he wishes he could read Kryptonian minds but he suspects Kara would only be a louder echo of Alex’s furious thoughts at the moment. “Very well. Let Mr. Schott know he’ll have whatever accesses he needs for the duration, after he signs the necessary paperwork.”

“Good. I’ll let you know what he decides.”

Accepting the dismissal, J’onn nods and steps out of the room.

Silences settles over the two women once more, then Kara whispers, “You don’t really think Lena’s involved, do you?”

Alex runs a hand through her hair. “No,” she sighs at last, “I don’t. But she might still know something. No, not because she’s complicit, but just by virtue of knowing Lillian.”

“Maybe.”

“What… what do we tell mom?”

Kara’s eyes widen. “Oh, Rao.” She bites her lip. “Should we… I don’t think we should tell her, not right now, not until we have him back. If…” she takes a breath, “if something _happens_ , Alex, if… I think we should wait.”

“Yeah. Just… in case. In case she never needs to know any different.”

“We’re going to find him,” Kara breathes, reaching out, tangling her fingers with her sister’s, “I swear it, Alex. But I don’t want to put Eliza through this stress, you know? Let’s just wait until we can tell her something good.”

*****

It’s a little before four a.m. when Kara feels her powers are back to normal. She wonders if the quicker return to strength might be due to the relatively minor injuries she sustained. 

_Or maybe I’m getting a better handle on the mental recovery after a solar flare._

Whatever the reason, she’s grateful to be feeling like herself again.

“I’m going to meet Winn at the shelter and see what he wants to do,” she says, slipping into a pair of civilian clothes the doctor pulled from a locker, “but first, I’m driving you home.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re exhausted. You’re going to let me drive you home and then you’re going to sleep for at least twelve hours.” Kara wags a finger at her. “I already texted Maggie and she told the clinic you’d be out today.”

Alex groans and presses her palms against her eyelids. “ _Fine_.”

“Good answer.” Kara turns off the sunlamps and shoves her suit in a spare bag. There are a few red stains against the blue sleeves and she reminds herself to soak it when she gets home. She loops her arm through her sister’s and they walk down the hall. “We’re going,” she calls to J’onn.

The man acknowledges with a half-wave, not looking up from the analyst’s screen. She’s still angry that they wasted months when she could have been helping them search for Jeremiah, but J’onn seems to feel bad about his decision to keep them in the dark, so she’s fairly confident he’ll call this time if they find anything.

Alex insists she’s _fine_ and _not tired_ , but when Kara pulls into the parking space at her apartment complex, she has trouble unbuckling her seatbelt, fingers refusing to cooperate.

Kara walks around and opens the passenger door, reaching down to release the seat belt, stepping back to give her room. 

Alex swings her feet out but sits for a moment longer, staring at her lap.

Kara crouches down. “Hey,” she puts her hands over Alex’s white-knuckled grasp, “I’m here.”

“It’s been twelve years,” comes the broken whisper. “How could we just _give up_?”

She feels Alex’s fingers pull at her own and lets her squeeze as hard as she needs. “We didn’t give up because we didn’t know we were supposed to be fighting. But now we know, and we’re fighting for him, and _he’s_ fighting. He’s strong, Alex. He knows we’re coming for him. We’re in this together, now.” She rubs her thumbs against the clammy skin. “Come on. Let’s get you in bed, okay?”

“I can’t, Kara, he’s - he’s _alone_ , he’s…”

“He’s Jeremiah Danvers. He’s going to do what he needs to do to keep going, every day, and so are we. We’re going to rest, so we can keep fighting for him, right?” Kara stands and pulls Alex to her feet slowly, keeping an arm around her waist. She pushes the car door closed, not letting it slam, and leads Alex into the building. “We’re going to work as hard as we can to find him but we have to be able to function. We owe him our best effort, remember? You said that.” 

Alex nods, feet bumping each stair as they climb to the second floor.

“And you were right.” Kara kisses the side of her head. “So we need to be at our best, which means sleep, and food, and cuddles with your girlfriend. For you, not me. I’m going to go snuggle my own girlfriend.”

The comment misses her completely and Kara sighs. 

She begins to fish the keys from Alex’s purse but the lock is thrown from inside. 

Maggie’s hands reach out for Alex before the door is even completely open. Kara keeps a hold on her sister but steps aside so Maggie can help, gently tossing Alex’s purse and the bag with her suit on the table, and she mouths “Shock” at the officer. 

Dark eyes grow more concerned but she nods and they lead the silent woman to the bedroom. Kara holds up the covers and Maggie helps Alex climb underneath, grabbing two more heavy blankets from the linen closet and settling them over her girlfriend. She takes one of the spare pillows and folds it in half, sliding it under Alex’s knees, which takes a little help from Kara when the redhead doesn’t respond, but they get it done. 

“I’m going to talk to Kara for a second, baby,” Maggie whispers, kissing Alex’s forehead twice, “but I’ll be right outside, okay?”

Maggie urges Kara out of the room, closes the door softly, then glares at the alien. “What the _hell_ happened? Your text just said she was too tired to drive.”

Kara runs her hands through her hair, sagging against the wall. “Jeremiah is alive.”

All the anger clears from Maggie’s face. “What?”

“We had no idea, it was… CADMUS has him.”

“ _Fuck_.”

“Yeah.” She sighs. “I couldn’t not tell her, it’s just… it’s a lot.”

“Fuck,” is all Maggie breathes, again.

“Look, we’re trying to find him, obviously. She wants to be kept in the loop.” Maggie arches an eyebrow. “I won’t keep things from her, not about this. But she needs time. I doubt we’re going to get anything on him right away and she’s going to want to lose herself in the search.”

Maggie exhales slowly. “Yeah.” She hooks her thumbs together, pressing her palm against her fingers until the knuckles crack, and the sound makes Kara wince. “Sorry.”

Kara waves her off. “I had a long night. Just… take care of her, please. And if you could, you know, keep an ear out for anything at work…”

“Of course.”

Kara accepts the hand when Maggie offers it and squeezes gently, pulling her in for a stilted hug. “Text me if you need anything.”

“I will.”

“Can I, um… I’m going to -” Kara points at the largest living room window. 

Maggie nods. “Yeah, that’s fine. See you.”

By the time Kara retrieves her bag and pulls the window up, the bedroom door has opened, closed, and she can hear the ruffle of sheets as Maggie carefully sits beside Alex. Maggie murmurs quiet words, soothing, something in Spanish, but Kara refuses to listen in and takes off into the sky, moving quickly to avoid being seen in civilian clothes.

*****

He dons the heavy jacket, though he feels no pain from the intense cold or biting wind. Further damage to the skin covering his cybernetic skeleton is not recommended - it’s the only reason he agreed to the steel face mask, serving the dual purpose of hiding the injury to avoid immediately raising suspicions of the humans and protecting the skin exposed by Supergirl’s heat vision. 

The craft is small, but enough to withstand the winds and allow him to fly from California to Antarctica. Lillian provided the coordinates, long ago sleuthed out by her genius son, and gave him specific instructions. 

Landing some yards away, he exits the craft, boots crunching in the snow as he walks. He puts one hand in the pocket of his fur-lined jacket, wrapping his fingers around the tube. It cooled during the flight but should still serve its purpose. 

It takes all of his enhanced strength to lift the key and fit it into the lock, but the Fortress opens before him and he strides inside.

He glances at the tall statues, curling his lip as he walks beneath them. Aliens… monuments to aliens. Ridding Earth of these beings and all memorials to them, that’s why he joined the DEO, that’s why he joined CADMUS. He’s always been faithful to his cause and he knows their work is important. 

A small gold robot buzzes around, demanding information. “Identify yourself, or you will be destroyed,” it warns.

Hank ignores it. He withdraws the tube, prying off the rubber stopper, and pours the thick blood over his hand, letting it drip onto the control panel. To ensure he gets every last bit, he puts the vial on the panel and then places his palm on the main section, pressing down, smashing the glass and letting the blood seep into the grooves of the alien construction. 

The robot changes instantly. “Greetings, Kara Zor-El. How may I assist you?”

He removes a data storage device from his other pocket and inserts it into the panel. 

“Tell me everything you know about Kal-El, Kara Zor-El, and the project you call Medusa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> J'onn doesn't have the relationship with Kara and Alex he does in the show - at least, not yet. Don't worry, our space family will come together in this AU. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bringing Winn and Lena up to date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena finally appears! And, as always, Scout isn't far behind :)

Kara’s waiting at the shelter when Winn arrives at seven-thirty. Everyone has finished breakfast and the dividers in the dog wing are raised, allowing them access to the sunshine, though in the last week of November, it’s still cold, even in the sun. She checks the forecast and sets a reminder on her phone to bring the dogs in before the rain is supposed to roll in at four. 

“Whoa.” He rests a hand on his messenger bag, clutching it in surprise. “You look like hell.”

“Good morning to you, too.”

“Sorry, I just, I mean… no, that’s all I got.” He sinks into the chair beside her. “I didn’t know you could get bags under your eyes.”

“I’ve become annoyingly accustomed to sleeping.”

“And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear cargo pants into the office.”

Kara rubs her forehead. “They’re not mine. It’s been… a long night.”

“What happened yesterday?”

Feeling drained every time she has to tell the story, Kara sighs and nonetheless fills him in, ending with herself driving Alex home, though the details stop there.

“What can I do?” are the first words out of his mouth when she’s finished. 

She smiles a little, grasping his arm, knowing she’d been right, but confirmation of his unwavering support still makes her feel like crying. “J’onn says the resources at the DEO are yours.”

He can’t stop the grin that dances across his face for a second. “Really? Oh, yeah, I mean, okay. I’m sure I can find something to do there.” Winn clears his throat. “Who’s going to watch the shelter?”

“We’ll go to holiday hours for the week.” She shrugs. “I don’t know what else to do. I figure I can be here most of the time,” she taps a finger against her ear, “but in case I have to leave in a hurry, it’ll be easier if we’re not open to the public very much right now.”

“I’ll put an announcement of the hours on Facebook and print a sign for the door.”

She thinks of her sister and tugs on Winn’s arm before he can turn to login to his computer. “I don’t think this is going to be quick,” she says, meeting his gaze. “We had no sign of him for over a decade, Winn, I doubt we’re just going to find him again in a few days. So, don’t… we have to pace ourselves, a little. I love you for wanting to help, you know that, but I need you to take care of yourself, too.”

He rubs his hand against the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know. I will.” She pulls him closer and he stands to accommodate the hug. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep? You said yourself, this is going to take time. I can keep an eye on things here today. That’ll give me a chance to get a couple things in order and I’ll message you before I leave.”

Kara nods against his shoulder and steps back, then scowls suddenly. “Ugh, I didn’t even… how did it go with Rocco last night?”

“He likes the salmon treats. I got his attention with that, made it more worth his while than hanging on to the toy, and he had no trouble when I lead him back to his kennel. But, um,” he scratches at his ear for a moment, “you’re going to have to be the one to smooth the marks from the table. I couldn’t get them to budge.”

“Sorry about that. I’ll fix it.”

“Tomorrow.”

She ducks her head. “Yeah, tomorrow.”

“Go.” He pushes her gently. “Eat a dozen doughnuts and then crash for a couple of hours.”

She takes a few steps and then turns to face him, hand curling against the door. “What am I supposed to say to Lena?”

Winn quirks a grin. “You can tell her you met your mother-in-law.” The glare he receives says Kara is unamused. “Sorry.” He clears his throat. “Um, I think she needs the truth. I bet she can come up with something to help.”

“You don’t think she’s part of CADMUS?”

He snorts. “Not a chance. Oh, except maybe like as a double-agent? That could be exciting.”

“Winn.”

“No, not exciting, that would be bad, scary.” He shakes his head and comes out from behind the desk to put his arms around his friend in another hug. “You know as well as I do, Kara, there’s no way she’s a member of CADMUS. Don’t let J’onn or anyone else tell you differently.” He squeezes her tightly, because he can. “Believe in her.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Kara takes a breath. “You’re right. Thanks, Winn.”

“Now, get out of here. Text me if you need me.”

*****

There are still five doughnuts in the box but Kara devoured seven of them before collapsing in a heap on her bed, so at least she isn’t starving as she blinks awake into the afternoon sun.

She stretches and throws out an arm, patting until she finds her phone on the nightstand.

She groans. The display on her phone says it’s 3:17.

It also shows she missed several text messages while she was asleep.

Three from Winn: 

_Social media updated and sign on the door, we are now 10-3 today, closed Wed-Fri._  
_One intake today, cat, Jackson. You’ll see his information whenever you come in._  
_I pulled all the dogs inside, thunder started._

One from Maggie:

_Alex is up. Feeling better._

That one came through at a little before noon so Kara sends a quick message to her sister.

_Love you. Need anything?_

And one message from Lena, at 9:08.

_We learned ‘stand’!_

Kara plays the short video, smiling broadly as she hears Lena’s excitement when Scout goes from lying down, upon request, to standing on all fours, and the camera jostles for a few frames at the end as Lena praises him.

_Kara: Awww, that’s so great! *heart-eye emoji*_

_Lena: He’s such a smart dog._

Kara taps her fingers against the back of her phone. Lena’s reply came through almost immediately, so she’s clearly not in a meeting right this second. 

_Kara: Are you very busy today?_

_Lena: Not terribly, my final meeting is at four._  
_Lena: What did you have in mind?_

_Kara: I could bring dinner?_

_Lena: That sounds great, darling._  
_Lena: My apartment, around six-thirty?_

_Kara: Can’t wait._

_Except that I have no idea what I’m going to say,_ she sighs, letting her phone rest against her stomach as she scrubs her hands across her face. 

She swings her legs over the bed and stands up, frowning at the cargo pants. She pads into the bathroom where she threw her suit when she got home, pulling the sleeves from the cold water in the sink, and examines the material to check if the stains have disappeared. 

A few rinses later to be sure, and she changes into her normal clothes, including her suit underneath, just in case. 

She told Winn it will take awhile and she’s pretty sure that’s true, but if they find Jeremiah she wants to be ready. 

She’s shoving the third doughnut in her mouth, stress eating with fervor, when her phone buzzes.

_Alex: Maggie is cooking. Want to come over?_

_Kara: if I ever say no to that_  
_Kara: assume i’m in distress and send help_

_Alex: that’s what I told her_  
_Alex: and I love you too_

_Kara: i can’t stay long though, dinner with Lena later_

_Alex: please come over for a minute at least_

At the unusually direct request from her sister, Kara leaves the two-and-a-half doughnuts on the counter and rushes out the window, speeding her way through the sky, landing with a blur in Alex’s living room thirty seconds later.

Alex is sitting on the couch, legs curled up underneath her, blanket draped across her shoulders, phone still in her hand. The TV is on, though it’s the Netflix selection screen and nothing has been chosen yet.

Maggie is in the kitchen and raises one hand in greeting. 

Kara responds to the raised spatula with a, “Hey,” and turns to her sister. “What’s up?”

Alex pats the cushions and Kara joins her. “I just,” she puts her hand on Kara’s knee, “I needed to see you.”

“I’m okay,” Kara whispers, leaning forward to put her arms around her sister, holding her close, listening to her breathe even as she knew Alex was doing the same. “I got some sleep.” 

Alex pulls back slightly and brushes a bit of frosting from her cheek; how crumbs stayed on during flight, she had no idea, but it wasn’t the first time she’d seen her sister land with evidence of her latest meal still on her face. 

Kara grins. “I also got some doughnuts.”

“I saw the Facebook update. You talked to Winn?”

Kara nods. “He’s in. He’ll help.”

“Lena?”

She sighs. “I’m talking with her tonight. I’m going to get the shelter settled for the night and then I’ll bring dinner and then… I don’t know. It’s not, I’m not worried she’s a part of whatever plot CADMUS is running, but I mean, how do you tell your girlfriend her mother is the head of the most virulent anti-alien organization in the country?” Kara gives her sister a bleak look. “I might come knocking if it goes really badly.”

Alex rubs her arm. “You know our window is always open,” she says, “but… just tell her the truth, Kara. She might have to sign some paperwork or something, you’ll have to ask J’onn, but, I mean, she’s kind of in the same boat as us, you know?” She shrugs a little. “Whatever is going on with dad, we want to know about it. Why should she be any different with her mother just because it might be bad news?”

Kara nods and bumps her head against Alex’s softly. “You’re right. As usual.”

“Of course I am.”

A tiny bit of the weight on her shoulders is lifted by the joking tone. Kara gives her sister another hug. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Get a quesadilla before you go.”

Kara perks up. “You’re making quesadillas, Maggie?”

“I made one for you.”

“Aww, thank you!” She leaps off the couch and heads into the kitchen, accepting the paper plate with two large corn tortillas and a pound of cheese melted between them. 

“It’s hot,” Maggie warns habitually, then blushes a little when she realIzes what she said. 

“It’s perfect,” Kara corrects, taking a large bite. She practically inhales the entire thing, barely refraining from chewing the plate, then thanks Maggie again and heads off to the shelter. 

Maggie just stares. 

Alex doesn’t look up from the TV as she swipes through to find a movie she feels like watching. “I can tell your mouth is hanging open right now.”

“I can’t… I’ve seen your sister eat. She can put away food like nobody’s business.” Maggie turns the burner down on the pot of soup. “But I have _never_ seen her scarf anything down like that.”

“That’s what happens when she stress eats.”

Maggie sighs. “Maybe I should save her some soup.”

“It’s okay. If she comes back tonight and needs comfort food, she’ll raid our freezer before she goes for the canned goods.” Alex adjusts the blanket so it’s across her lap. “Now come sit with me so we can watch Emperor’s New Groove.”

*****

It isn’t until she’s standing in line at Uncle Chen’s that Kara realizes she never asked Lena what she wanted for dinner. 

_Kara: I’m sorry_  
_Kara: is Chinese okay?_

_Lena: bring whatever you feel like_  
_Lena: I don’t mind_  
_Lena: I’ll give Scout his Kong after you get here_

Kara sighs in relief and orders enough for the two of them, potstickers to feed a party of six, plus an extra side of fried wontons because she needs the crispy goodness in her life at the moment. 

She considers walking the way to Lena’s apartment, but she’s torn between taking longer so she has time to think or flying right there. 

She doesn’t want to bring Lena a cold dinner, is what ultimately makes the decision for her, and she lands a half-block from the apartment building. The night manager is used to seeing her and waves at her when she walks in. She smiles at him in return but when she steps inside the elevator and finds she’s the only one for the ride up, her smile falls and she hangs her head as the nerves kick in. 

Kara shifts the bags to one hand so she can knock on the door. She can hear Lena on the other side, asking Scout to get in his kennel, but the puppy is excited by the knock and she hears loud snuffling as he tries to shove his nose under the door. 

She chuckles and waits for nearly a minute, until the gate is closed on the kennel and Lena pulls open the front door. Classical music filters into the hallway and Kara recognizes it as the calming CD Lena got when she picked up Scout from the shelter; with the scattered storms in the area, she knows Lena is trying to keep Scout more relaxed as the thunder rolls. Her heart warms at Lena's thoughtful consideration of the pup's comfort. 

“I’m sorry that took so long,” she begins, but Kara just smiles and shakes her head. 

“No problem.” She puts the bags down on the island in the kitchen. Lena comes up from behind to give her a hug but Kara steps away at the last moment. “I didn’t pick up any drinks,” she reaches for the top cupboard and pulls out two glasses, “do you want water?”

Lena nods. “That’s fine, thank you.” 

As Kara fills the glasses with water from the dispenser in the door of the refrigerator, Lena opens the freezer and pulls out Scout’s dinner. She rests her hand against Kara’s lower back, something she’s done dozens of times just out of habit, but in this moment it is specific and deliberate. 

Kara pauses for a moment and Lena is concerned she’s going to move out of reach again, that something is very _wrong_ and she doesn’t know what it could be much less how to fix it, but then Kara puts the drinks on the kitchen counter and turns and burrows into Lena’s arms. 

“Wh- I’m here,” she breathes, holding her close. “What is it, sweetheart?”

“I had a really long night and I wanted to come see you sooner but I couldn’t and I have no idea how to tell you what I have to say and I just need you to not let go for awhile.”

The words are rushed and muffled but Lena gets most of them, she thinks. “Okay,” she says easily, “I can do that.” She presses her lips against the blonde hair. “I’m not going anywhere.” She rubs one hand across Kara’s back, keeping the other around her shoulders, trying to consciously slow her own breathing and heartbeat as she suspects Kara is listening to both. 

“Do you want to eat something?” Lena asks, after several minutes. 

Kara tightens her hold. 

“We don’t have to let go completely,” she soothes, “but you should get some dinner, okay?”

After a long moment, Kara nods. Lena moves carefully, preparing Scout’s Kong while keeping one arm around Kara, and the two take a few steps together to give the pup his dinner, which Lena lets him dive into immediately. 

Back in the kitchen, Kara pulls back just enough to grab the bags of takeout in one hand and her water glass in the other. Lena picks up her own glass and they move to the living room in an awkward shuffle-step, coordinated so they don’t trip. 

Lena admits she’s relieved when they make it to the couch and everything and everyone is in one piece. 

She lets Kara dictate their positions, which is how she ends up with her girlfriend curled into her side, blonde head tucked under her chin, while trying to eat potstickers. 

It takes four potstickers and three fried wontons before Kara begins to relax. She unfurls from the ball she’d been in, her knees up to her chest, and extends her legs, sitting a little more upright, shoulder-to-shoulder with Lena. 

“Hey,” Lena says gently, cupping her cheek, “how are you feeling?”

“Exhausted,” comes the admission. 

“We can just go to bed. Let me take Scout on one more quick walk when he’s finished eating and -“ but Kara is shaking her head. 

“No, I need to tell you. I just… okay.” Kara takes a deep breath. Then another. “What do you know about CADMUS?”

Lena frowns at the topic. “The anti-alien terrorist group?”

“Yeah. So,” she licks her lips, “they, they kidnapped someone I care about.”

Lena grasps Kara’s arm. “Is Alex -“

“Alex is fine. It’s… Alex’s dad. My adoptive father, Jeremiah.” Kara sighs. “I… we didn’t know. We thought he was dead, but he got a message to me yesterday. I tried… I went to save him.”

Lena’s grip remains. 

“It didn’t go so well. I... well,” she decides to just say it, “I blew out my powers and Jeremiah had to help _me_ escape. We’re still trying to find him again. But Lena…” Kara meets her gaze and Lena is stunned by the sadness she sees there, “I met the head of CADMUS. Their leader.” She chews on her bottom lip for a moment. “It’s Lillian.”

Green eyes narrow. _It can’t be_ , is her first thought. Financial support for the group, that she could believe, but direct involvement? Leadership? No, she didn’t want that to be true. 

Perhaps Kara was confused or had simply misunderstood. “Are you sure? Have you met her before?”

Kara shakes her head. “She talked about you and Lex. And she… I recognized her voice. From the CADMUS videos.”

“What did she say?”

“She doesn’t like that you and Supergirl are friends, and she gave me her take on Lex and Kal-El’s history.” Kara looks away and can’t seem to find Lena’s gaze again. “She also… she took my blood, but I don’t… I can’t figure out why.”

“Your… _how_?” Lena’s fingers trail across her hands, as though trying to find a scar, an injury, to find some indicator of what caused the weakness and how to fix it. 

“My powers are based on my body absorbing solar radiation from Earth’s yellow sun, but it’s still a finite capacity, really… it’s possible that I can overextend my powers and essentially burn them out. It’s, we call it a solar flare.” She turns her palms upward, allowing Lena to continue her journey. “It isn’t permanent, but I have to recharge under sunlamps, which give off the solar radiation I need. It can take a few hours to a few days.”

Lena falls quiet, tracing the lines in Kara’s hands. “I told you before that Lillian encouraged Lex’s anger, turned it toward hatred and xenophobia, and yes, she was never going to be mother of the year, but… this…”

Kara sighs. “I’m sorry.”

“When she took your blood, you were without your powers.” 

Kara nods. 

“Did she hurt you?” Lena’s hands clutch hers tightly when Kara looks away. 

“It wasn’t… I’m healed, now.” 

“I knew she hated Superman for what happened with Lex, but I thought… I didn’t realize she would extend that to you. Not like this.” She tugs Kara’s hand up and kisses her knuckles, breath warm against her fingers. “I’m so sorry.”

“It isn’t your fault, Lena.”

“Maybe I can talk to her.”

Kara’s eyes grow wide and she shakes her head. “No! No way.”

“We need to know what she’s planning.”

“She is _dangerous_ , Lena, she is… she’s cold and calculating.” The blonde shifts closer. “You can’t. Promise me you’ll stay away from her.”

“Kara, she _hurt_ you.”

“And I can sit under a sunlamp and heal,” she counters, “but you don’t have that option. I don’t… Rao, Lena, I don’t want you putting yourself at risk. _Please_.” Kara gently pulls the woman into her lap, stroking the long dark hair. “Please,” she whispers, placing a firm kiss to her temple, “don’t confront her.”

Lena rests her head against Kara’s, melting into the hold. “I’m not going to confront her.”

Kara sighs heavily and they both sink deeper into the couch. “I don’t… I mean, I don’t want you to think I’m saying you can’t, you know, see your family or something, but I just…”

“When the remaining members of your family are sociopaths, I think that’s a fair request.”

“I’m sorry,” she says again. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“It’s okay. Did you… did you think I would be upset?”

Kara nods against her shoulder and Lena adjusts so she’s straddling Kara’s waist and can look her in the eye. “You are not your cousin and I am not my brother,” comes the reminder. “We can be… we _are_ different.”

“I know,” Kara kisses her, “I know that. I wasn’t sure if… maybe you wouldn’t believe me, or you’d think I was letting my cousin’s history blind me.”

“I do believe you. I didn’t want to, at first, but I do.” She leans her forehead against Kara’s. “What does that say about me? That it’s so easy to accept that my mother is the head of an anti-alien terrorist organization?”

“It says we both have parents that aren’t who we thought.” _It says your trust in me is amazing and I do not deserve you._ “But one thing I’ve learned is that family isn’t just blood - we can choose our families, the people we share our lives with. You are more than your last name and your family is so much greater than a few Luthors.”

Lena’s kiss is gentle and Kara responds in kind. 

*****

The van comes to a stop and Jeremiah pulls the side door open, allowing Lillian to exit. Those were her rules: last one in, first one out, and she always chose a seat in the back of the windowless vans, so her face wouldn’t be captured by traffic cameras. There were times she had to take regular transportation but she didn’t want to connect the fleet of CADMUS vehicles to the Luthor name. 

Hank throws open the driver’s door and steps out, the relief of his weight causing the van to rock slightly. 

Lillian looks around in approval. They have about an hour before the rest of the vehicles will arrive, each coming via a different route, as a convoy would just be asking for trouble, but there’s plenty of work to be done before then. 

The Luthor Naval Research Facility will be perfect for her needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll see more Scout in the next chapters <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanksgiving!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your comments and kudos! <3

After dinner, Kara is still a ball of anxiety, so she sits on the floor and Scout flops into her lap the moment he's out of his kennel. Lena sits on the couch, watching them together, identifying the point when Kara truly relaxes. The connection she draws with the puppy is almost tangible, and after petting him for a while, feeling his warm breath on her skin and resting her hand against his side, moving with every inhale and exhale, her head falls forward slightly and Lena knows she’s finally feeling better. 

Lena joins them on the floor, much to Scout’s delight, and he wriggles himself onto both women’s laps, laying in what appears to be an uncomfortable position, but his wagging tail smacks Kara’s elbow as he leans his head into Lena’s thigh and asks for more pettings. Lena runs her fingers through Kara’s hair, and the woman nearly melts against her, putting her head on her shoulder.

“Do you still want to come over for Thanksgiving?” Kara asks, nuzzling her neck. 

Lena hesitates. “If you still want me there.”

“Of course I do.”

“And Alex?”

Kara frowns. “Why wouldn’t - oh, no, it isn’t… she doesn’t _blame_ you, Lena.” She kisses the edge of her ear. “We’d love to have you. Please come, if you want.”

“Alright,” Lena says quietly. She knows she can’t deny Kara anything, not for long, anyway, so she’ll do her best to shove aside her anxiety and... meet Kara’s mother.

They walk Scout together on his last outing of the evening, taking advantage of a break in the rain. Lena enjoys the time greatly, spending quiet time with Kara, watching her interact with Scout, hearing her happy voice when Scout drops a bit of trash he’d picked up and willingly trades it for a treat that Kara fishes out of the bag around Lena’s waist. 

There's something about the moment that pulls at her, something about Kara and the puppy and all of it together. She makes a conscious effort to commit it to memory. 

Lena is quiet as they return to the apartment and it doesn't take long for Kara to notice. 

“You okay?” she asks, putting an arm around Lena’s waist. 

“Can you stay? Tonight, I mean.”

Kara nods. “Of course.”

“If Alex needs you, or if there's something -”

“I can stay,” Kara says softly, kissing her shoulder twice. 

“Thank you.” Lena turns and allows herself to be folded into a hug. 

The thought of her mother going after Kara, hurting her, rattled her more than she expected. 

She needs to plan. There has to be something she can do to protect her. 

But there will be time for strategy in the morning.

For now, she needs to fall asleep with the warmth and weight of her girlfriend pressed against her, reassuring her of her safety with every breath.

*****

Lena wakes up completely unable to move. Kara is pressed against her back, arms wrapped around her waist, one leg thrown over Lena’s, securing her in a tight hold. 

She carefully pries one hand from near her stomach, bringing it to her lips and kissing the knuckles gently. 

Kara stirs for a moment, not enough to wake, but just enough to shift her legs, giving Lena the chance to move her own, adjusting her hips to a more comfortable position. 

Kara’s other arm is underneath Lena herself, so she carefully pushes up with her elbow and slides out of bed. When she looks back, she feels such utter fondness, sort of a flutter in her sternum, and she claps a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling aloud. 

Kara still has one arm stretched out near Lena’s pillow, her other resting at her stomach, and her legs are tangled in the sheets. Blonde hair is mussed around her face, strands caught near her eyelashes, and Lena reaches out and brushes the hair away, stroking her cheek. 

Kara hums contentedly at the touch. She mumbles something that Lena doesn't catch.

“What was that, darling?”

“Back to bed,” she requests again, words muffled against the pillow. 

“I’m afraid we have to get up, sweetheart. You wanted to start getting ready for Thanksgiving, right?” 

Scout launches himself on the bed, happy to hear his humans talking and moving around. He's been ready for breakfast and a walk for _ages_. He's a little surprised when he finds the blonde one in bed and his human standing nearby, but he tramples Kara and accepts scratches from Lena. 

Kara laughs. “Good morning to you, too,” she says, patting the dog’s side gently. “I guess I'm awake now. Can I go with you when you walk him?”

That giddy feeling hits her in the chest again. “Of course you can,” Lena replies with a smile, turning to dress and hide the seemingly random flood of tears that threaten. 

*****

Kara spends two hours at the shelter and then it's time to begin preparing for Thanksgiving, which will be at her apartment this year. The previous year she'd been fostering a scared pup who would not have appreciated a half-dozen people in the apartment, so they'd gathered at Maggie and Alex’s place and the holiday doubled as a house-warming. 

Lena prepares for a difficult morning and googles _Lillian Luthor_ , then _CADMUS_ , and she makes a note to scroll through the local news stories for attacks that had already been assigned to CADMUS and the ones with mysterious motives which could be CADMUS-related. 

She reads blogs and articles from the past year written on Lillian. Many of them only mention her in passing, a footnote on the madness of Lex Luthor, but a few wonder aloud about a connection between a son’s insanity and the influence of his mother, though no one has seemed to yet posit that Lillian could be the head of CADMUS.

The very first article on CADMUS she can find is from more than twenty years ago, a conspiracy site claiming it’s some sort of secret government prison where torture and experiments were carried out. The posting is fringe enough that there's nothing more for almost a decade, then a few blips on the radar, with keywords like aliens and torture. The information still comes from disreputable sources, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. 

The explosion of news comes within the last six months, of course, following CADMUS’ very public statement. Their first propaganda video, decrying aliens’ existence on the planet, promising xenophobic humans their voices were heard and changes would be wrought, captured the attention of every local news outlet and many international feeds. 

Lena clicks on one of the many YouTube uploads of the video. 

She has to close the tab within four seconds. 

It's research and she owes it to Kara to be thorough… but she breathes through her nose and acknowledges that she can't do that right now. Not all at once. 

She has an hour until she needs to leave for Kara’s.

She spends most of that time in the shower, pushing away everything she read until she can deal with it. 

*****

Lena arrives a little before noon. She's early, but she's also nervous, and she's hoping she can get a chance to have some Kara time before more people filter into the small apartment. 

Kara opens the door wide and grins. “Hi!”

“I didn't even get a chance to knock.”

“Oh,” Kara chuckles and taps her ear, “sorry about that. I'm just really excited. I heard you and Scout coming down the hall and I couldn't wait.”

Lena leads Scout inside and then removes the leash, letting him explore. She turns and focuses on Kara, getting a good look at her for the first time, and the purse slides off her shoulder as her posture deflates. 

Kara is wearing a yellow printed sundress, currently with a small waist-apron overtop, and her hair is back in a French braid, though she isn't wearing her glasses. Lena can see them resting on the kitchen counter, tucked away from mixing bowls and measuring cups. 

“Are you -” Kara begins, concerned when Lena’s face falls.

Lena steps forward and leans into her girlfriend, gripping her wrists and pressing her face into the strong neck. “How long until the others get here?”

“Um, Alex and Maggie are bringing Eliza over at two, and everyone else should be here by three.” Kara doesn't move, not sure what Lena needs from her. “What's wrong?”

“You're wearing a dress,” she mumbles, “and I could have used a little warning.”

Kara relaxes and lets out a small chuckle. “Sorry. I can change?”

“Don't even think about it.” Lena takes a deep breath. “Just give me a few minutes. You look really good in yellow.”

“You say that about every color I wear,” Kara points out with amusement. 

“Because it's true. Unfair,” Lena sighs against her neck, kissing the skin there, “but true.”

“You know… I have another thirty minutes before I need to take the pie out of the oven.” Kara raises an eyebrow suggestively. “Would seeing me _out_ of this dress make it easier for you?”

 _Absolutely not._ “I'm not going to turn down the offer, that's for damned sure,” Lena replies, already moving to pull at the strings of the apron, letting it fall to the floor, smiling as Kara ducks her head to kiss her.

*****

Lena is more relaxed but no less distracted when they’re dressed again. She gratefully accepts the glass of wine Kara offers and takes a small sip before putting it on the counter and helping Kara set the table. 

She finds herself staring as Kara stretches to reach the next place setting, to put the towels for hot dishes in the center of the table, mesmerized by the play of muscles under her skin, visible even with simple tasks. 

_God, I am such a mess._ She shakes her head and tries to refocus, adding the silverware on the appropriate sides of each plate. 

“Thanks,” Kara says, kissing her shoulder as she responds to the buzzer on the oven and walks back into the kitchen. “I always mess up where to put the fork versus the spoon.”

Scout lifts his head from his place on the floor next to the couch. He sniffs the air, checking the quality of the apple pie before deciding it isn't that interesting. He huffs a sigh, dark eyes watching his human and her companion move around the small apartment.

The puppy stretches out onto his side and closes his eyes. 

Kara glances at the movement but when she sees it’s Scout settling comfortably, she grins. She leans over to kiss Lena’s cheek. 

“What was that for?” Lena asks with a smile. 

“He’s doing really well, I'm just so proud of both of you. Thank you for giving him such a great home and a life full of love.”

 _Well… that's… goodness._ “It’s been an adjustment,” she admits, “but a good one. I'm so glad to have him.” She returns Kara’s kiss with one of her own against the jaw of steel. “And I'm glad to have _you_.”

Kara visibly melts, forgetting about the casserole that's next in line for the oven and snaking her arms around Lena’s waist. “Yeah?”

“Definitely.” A bit of blonde hair has come loose from the braid and Lena tucks it behind the woman’s ear. “I'm rather fond of you, you know.”

“I'm wildly in love with you,” Kara replies easily, “for the record.”

Lena’s smile holds such _love_ that Kara feels it in her chest and she pulls the shorter woman into a fierce hug. 

“I'm so glad you're here,” she whispers. 

“I haven't even met your adoptive mother yet,” Lena replies, “I might embarrass you.”

Kara snorts. “No way. Eliza is going to love you. Trust me,” she kisses the shell of Lena’s ear, “okay? Just be yourself.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “A Luthor? Be the woman whose family has tried to kill your cousin and…”

“Hey.” Kara leans back so she can meet the dark green gaze. “That's who _they_ are, not who _you_ are. You are amazing and funny and clever and so kind.” She traces the sharp jawline with the tips of her fingers. “I see that and more every time I look at you. Eliza will, too.”

Lena sighs and lets her forehead rest against Kara’s chest. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” she promises, kissing the top of her head. “But you don't have to stay if you're uncomfortable, okay? I can tell them something came up.”

“No, I'll stay.” She squeezes Kara tightly. “But I might need to escape for a few minutes once in a while,” she admits after a moment.

“I'm sure Scout wouldn't turn down a quick walk,” Kara smiles, “as often as you need.”

Feeling a little better with the reminder that she can claim Scout as a momentary escape plan if she gets a little overwhelmed, Lena returns to helping Kara in the kitchen, still nervous but also determined to have the holiday go well for her girlfriend.

Maggie and Alex arrive at a few minutes past two, though Eliza is the first to step into the apartment when Kara opens the door. 

“Kara, I've missed you so,” she says, wrapping her arms around the blonde in a tight hug, smiling at the strong arms that return the embrace carefully.

“I missed you too,” Kara replies, squeezing the older woman gently and then stepping back to make introductions. “Eliza, this is my -”

“Oh goodness, yes, this must be Lena!” Eliza opens her arms and Lena steps forward tentatively, uncertain of the type of hug Eliza is looking for, and then she's pressed into a warm embrace, cheek to cheek. “It's so wonderful to meet you, sweetheart.”

“Thank you, Dr. Danvers, it's great to -”

“No, no, it's Eliza, please.” She pulls back but keeps her grip on Lena’s upper arms. “You're family, honey.” She sees the tears gathering and gives Lena a smile, squeezing her once more. “Now, speaking of family,” she says, turning her attention to the puppy sniffing her shoes, “this must be Scout.”

“He’s almost five months old,” Lena says, shifting to give Eliza his background about how he found her and how well he’s been doing with training. 

Kara smiles as the two move into the living room, Eliza’s hand never straying from Lena’s elbow.

Alex puts an arm around her sister in a brief hug. “Well, mom loves her already.”

Kara leans her head against Alex’s. “Yeah, I think so. How are you doing?”

“I'm okay.” When Kara says nothing, the redhead sighs quietly and adds, “I slept last night, that's something.”

“True.” She rubs her back. “You're off til Monday, right?”

“She is,” Maggie confirms, coming up beside the Danvers sisters, exchanging a quick one-armed hug with Kara and then standing close to her girlfriend. “I talked to my supe and got the next two days off, so we’re going to take it easy.”

Eliza coos loudly when Scout shows off his tricks. “He's so smart!” The pup’s entire hind end wiggles at the praise and he leans into Eliza’s shins, pressing his head against her hand for more pettings. “Oh my, he's precious.”

“Lena’s fantastic with him,” Kara agrees proudly, pressing a kiss to the side of Alex’s head and turning her attention to the kitchen. “What can I get everyone to drink?”

When everyone is settled in the living room with refreshments, Eliza begins questioning her girls about the latest happenings in their lives. Kara and Alex answer dutifully, both refusing to bring up the most recent events, but when Eliza notices, and of course she does, Maggie interjects, “So, I've decided to take the detective exam,” and swings the attention to her work and future plans. 

Alex beams with pride and squeezes her leg, thankful for the distraction. 

Maggie accepts the congratulations, including Kara’s excited squeal and full-body hug, and the good wishes only grow when James and Winn arrive and Eliza fills them in on what they missed. 

James lets Scout approach him and ask for pettings, and he kneels slowly to pat the pup’s chest. Scout wags his tail at this new tall friend and turns so James can scratch his shoulder. 

Winn puts the pumpkin pie in the fridge and then hugs Eliza for all he’s worth. “I smell glazed carrots!”

Lena watches the small apartment fill with people. She takes stock of her anxiety and finds it surprisingly low. It helps that Eliza hasn't directly questioned her yet, though she's sure it's coming, but even so, seven people and a dog in the limited space would usually be enough to set her teeth on edge. Instead, she leans her shoulder against Kara’s, as the woman stands beside her, and smiles when the gentle pressure is returned. 

“How are you?” Kara asks softly, keeping her hand at her side but reaching out to squeeze Lena’s fingers. She keeps the affection discrete, not wanting to make Lena uncomfortable.

“I’m good,” Lena assures her, touched by Kara’s attention. 

Now that everyone is present and the last of the food has been warmed or chilled as appropriate, Alex and Maggie pitch in to bring the serving dishes to the table, Lena puts Scout in the kennel with a stuffed marrow bone, and they all find their places around the table. Eliza sits at the head with Kara and Alex on either side of her, their respective girlfriends beside them, and James sits next to Maggie with Winn across from him. 

James wishes he could have his boyfriend closer, but the table isn’t quite big enough for another chair on the side and Winn refuses to draw attention to himself by sitting at the end. 

“It’s a Thanksgiving tradition,” Kara begins, “that we all say something we’re thankful for. Who wants to start?”

“I will.” Eliza stands. “I’m thankful for another year with my girls,” she smiles at Kara and Alex, “and to be here with all of you, and I’m thankful we’re all healthy.” She begins to sit, then remembers one last thing. “Oh, and for that puppy over there,” she gestures to Scout, who is enjoying the bone, “my adorable little granddog.”

Kara sputters and Lena blushes and Alex laughs. Eliza chuckles fondly and squeezes Kara’s shoulder as she sits back down. 

James stands next, “I’m thankful for everyone here, and for my mother, who I get to take this wonderful man to meet next weekend.”

Winn rubs the back of his neck, but he’s grinning when he takes his turn. “I’m thankful for a good job working with great people,” he gives Kara a thumbs up, “and the best friends a guy could ask for. Also! I'm super thankful Eliza brought her glazed carrots.”

Eliza laughs and raises her glass in appreciation. “I double the recipe just for you, Winn.”

Maggie stands then, clearing her throat softly. “I'm grateful for another year on the job without a serious injury,” to which Alex nods, “and I'm thankful every day I get to spend with this beautiful woman,” to which Alex smiles bashfully. 

Kara grins broadly at seeing her sister so happy. 

“I'm thankful for all of you,” Alex says, “for my mom, and my sister, and my amazing girlfriend, and to friends old and new.” She nods her head toward Lena at the last word and Lena smiles. 

Kara goes last, standing slowly, looking at the faces of her friends and family. “I'm thankful for the animals I get to share my days with at the shelter, and I'm looking forward to the following year being even better, thanks to Lena.” Kara rests her hand against Lena’s shoulder. She wants to say more directly but she doesn't want to embarrass her. “And I am so happy to have my family to share this holiday with.”

When Kara retakes her seat, she leans over, wanting to whisper to Lena that she doesn't have to say much if she doesn't want to, but Lena is already on her feet. 

“I'm thankful for Scout,” she declares. “I am thankful that he found me, that he led me to Kara,” the blonde smiles at her, “and she in turn led me to the rest of you who I am very glad to have met.” 

Eliza’s heart swells, her gaze traveling over each of the youthful faces at the table. “We all have so much to be thankful for. Now, let's eat!”

Lena is impressed at Kara’s restraint, choosing first to pass the dishes around for her guests and filling her own plate last. Then she realizes she's never seen Kara in the more formal setting of a holiday and wonders if it's less about restraint and more a testament to manners. 

The food is amazing. Lena has had many professionally-prepared full-course meals in her life, including holidays growing up in the Luthor mansion, when Lillian insisted they ate as a family (though Lena knew that was just for appearances), and the ingredients were always fresh and top of the line. 

Today, in her first Thanksgiving with Kara, the cranberry sauce is from a can, the turkey is flavorful but a modest size, the green bean casserole is slightly overdone, and the glazed carrots are too sweet for her personal taste but she takes a second helping anyway, and it's easily the best holiday meal she's ever had. The company makes it, and she finally has a group of people around her, one woman at her side specifically, for her to understand that saying. 

She saves a few bites of food on her plate, piling mashed potatoes with a few green beans and less than an ounce of turkey, setting this mix aside. While Eliza is chatting with Alex and Maggie, Lena whispers to Kara, “Can Scout have this?”

Kara turns and looks at the leftovers, then scans the rest of the table to see if there's anything else that can be added. “Sure, just nothing too rich or with a lot of sodium.” She gives Lena a bright smile. “That looks great, I'm sure he’ll love it.” 

Lena feels Kara’s hand come to rest against her knee. She mimics the gesture and squeezes Kara’s hand gently. 

Scout finished his marrow bone about halfway through the humans eating their meal and promptly passed out in his kennel. Every time Lena glances over to check on him, he's in the same position - laying on his side, head next to the bone, one paw over the rope toy - and she can't help but smile. 

When they’ve all finished eating the main meal, clean-up and arranging leftovers begins, and everyone makes sure the plastic container they’ll take home is filled with their favorites. Kara starts a pot of coffee and brings the pies to the table, along with small plates and three pie servers. 

Lena insists she only wants a small piece of one, so Kara says it has to be the chocolate pecan pie that Eliza made. That’s the first pie to be devoured, then half of the pumpkin and a quarter of the apple pies are eaten, but Kara knows that whatever isn’t taken as leftovers, she’ll take care of for a midnight snack. 

After dessert, Alex, Maggie, Winn, and James sit in the living room, taking turns petting Scout and tossing one of his toys across the floor when he brings it to them. He bounds after the dragon toy, tail knocking into shins and table legs. 

Lena helps clean up in the kitchen, standing beside Kara at the sink as she washes dishes, rinsing the soap from them before handing them to Eliza who dries them off, stacking them on the counter to be put away. Lena feels butterflies in her stomach whenever their fingers touch and after the fourth glass is exchanged, she forces herself to find a different grip, one that doesn’t overlap Kara’s, as it’s beginning to get a little uncomfortable standing so near Kara’s mother. 

_Now is not the time,_ she scolds her imagination. 

Kara starts up a stream of steady chatter, asking Eliza about her latest research paper, encouraging Lena to chime in about her own published works, and before Lena knows, the clean up is done, minus a few casserole dishes that need longer to soak. 

Kara rinses her hands and steps back from the sink, grabbing a dish towel from the handle of the oven, drying her hands and giving it to Lena to do the same. 

“Oh, darling,” Lena says, reaching toward Kara’s waist, “you must have gotten something on you when you were clearing the table.”

“What?” Kara glances down, then clucks her tongue when she sees the mark. “Shoot, cranberry sauce. I’m going to go change and put soap on this before it sets.”

She hurries into the bedroom, grabs a change of clothes, and then enters the bathroom. 

Lena watches her go, realizing with a nervous twinge that she’s now alone with Eliza in the kitchen. She calls upon every boardroom skill under her belt not to freeze up. 

Eliza seems to make the same realization. “Kara has told me a lot about you,” she says, and Lena smiles as politely as possible. “No, it’s okay, sweetheart,” Eliza continues quickly, grasping for Lena’s hand, and Lena wonders what shows on her face, “it’s okay. I’ve never seen her happier than since she found you. I just wanted to thank you for that.” Eliza squeezes her hand and Lena swallows back tears. “She’s had so much sadness in her life and she tries so hard to find the love around her… it’s just not often love comes looking for her.”

Lena opens her mouth to speak, though she has no idea what to say, when Eliza pulls her in for a hug, wrapping deceptively strong arms around her shoulders. 

“Thank you,” Eliza whispers. 

The only thing Lena can do is return the embrace. She wishes she knew what to say but nothing comes to her mind, nothing makes it past the lump in her throat. She's never known such a maternal touch, filled with warmth just for.. what, for loving Kara? The only option her heart gave her?

She doesn't think she's earned the gratitude and she can't think of any way to express that besides a gentle squeeze. 

“Now,” Eliza says, pulling back, rubbing Lena’s upper arms for a moment, “if you'll excuse me, I’m going to join in on the game of fetch in there before Scout gets too tired.”

Lena laughs. “He's got so much energy.”

Eliza walks into the living room and calls Scout to her, scratching his chin when he happily comes to her side. 

Kara exits the bedroom, now wearing a pair of dark grey slacks and a sea green short-sleeved shirt. She glances in the living room, checking on her guests and the puppy, sprawled on his back, happily accepting a belly rub from Eliza, then turns her attention to Lena. 

“Did you hear all that?” Lena murmurs, when Kara nears and reaches for her. 

“A little,” Kara admits, “but then I focused on something else.” _Your heartbeat_ , but she isn't sure if that's creepy, so she keeps it to herself. She rests her hands under Lena’s elbows, kissing her for a long moment. “Might want to take Scout out soon,” she says quietly. “Do you want me to go with you?”

Lena shakes her head. “We’ll be okay.” She cranes her neck and laughs at Scout’s position. “I might have to do some convincing to pry him away from his fans.”

There's a chorus of complaints when Lena attaches Scout’s leash, but Eliza and Maggie coo to the pup that they’ll play with him again when he comes back. 

Kara sits with her family and enjoys the conversation, but she keeps one ear on Lena’s heartbeat. 

_I've got to talk to her about that, in case she doesn't want me doing it._ She sighs. It's become a comfort at night, to fall asleep with the woman's steady heartbeat against her ear or under her palm, but since her run-in with Lillian, it's a daytime habit as well. Just to know she's safe, know she's okay. 

_But it's maybe a little stalkerish_ , Kara admits, and resolves to talk with Lena about it soon. 

“Earth to Kara,” Winn jokes, and Kara blinks, tuning back into the discussion. 

“Sorry, I was just -”

“Thinking about Lena,” Maggie supplies with a smirk. 

Kara shrugs, caught, but the laughter is kind and Alex pushes her shoulder, gently teasing. 

*****

Lena and Scout return within twenty minutes. Scout is happily exhausted by the walk with unusual smells and all the fun with new humans and he flops inside the kennel, falling asleep in less than a minute. 

After one last cup of coffee and another hour of pleasant small talk, everyone begins to head home. James and Winn take their leave, Winn promising to drop by the shelter and take care of the nighttime feedings. Maggie and Alex linger a little longer before taking Eliza back to her hotel, Eliza extracting a promise from both Kara and Lena that they would have lunch or dinner together before Eliza went back to Midvale. 

Kara gives her sister one more hug and then closes the door behind the three women as they walk down the hall. 

She turns to Lena. “That was great,” she smiles. “I love the holidays that get us to come together.”

 _Not something I'd usually agree to_ , but Lena finds herself nodding. Getting together with Kara and her friends, sure, Lena definitely finds that enjoyable. But thinking of a Luthor family reunion puts a sour taste in the back of her throat. 

Kara tilts her head. “Are you okay?” she asks, putting a hand out, resting it on Lena’s waist as she nears. “Was this too much?”

“No, I'm sorry, this was lovely, Kara. Thank you for inviting me. I'm just tired. Thinking of all the things I need to do tomorrow, I guess.” She tries a smile, though she suspects that Kara sees through it. 

Kara lets it go and just draws her close and kisses her neck. 

*****

Scout gets the Kong stuffed with leftovers and then he goes for one more walk before bed, Kara accompanying them this time. The three take a leisurely stroll, Scout sniffing every fallen leaf, crunching on one before spitting it out, after which he picks up a good-sized stick and carries it around proudly for half a block. 

Lena asks him to drop the stick before they enter the apartment building and he does, finding the dried liver piece much more rewarding than the admittedly interesting tasting stick. 

When he retires to his kennel the minute they're back inside Kara’s apartment and the leash is off, Kara chuckles, “I guess he’s set for the night.”

Lena smiles fondly at the pup. “Do you mind if we stay?” she asks quietly, not looking at her girlfriend, to make it easier on them both in case she says no. _It's been a full day of cooking and a lot of people in her space_ , Lena knows. _She probably wants some time to herself now._

“I was hoping you would.” Kara removes her glasses, having only slipped them on for the walk with Scout. “If you want to change, your pajamas are in the top drawer. I'll finish dishes and join you in a second?”

The kiss is slow and gentle and Kara is lost to it immediately. 

“I can do dishes in the morning,” she decides, mumbling around additional kisses, following Lena into the bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only slightly strange to be posting a fic about Thanksgiving on Fourth of July!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with the initial Medusa attack.

Kara leaves early to go to the shelter. Lena misses being able to cuddle for another hour before she herself needs to be up, but she knows how important spending time with the dogs and cats is to Kara, how much it soothes and relaxes her, and Lena could never begrudge her that. 

She feeds Scout his breakfast as she takes a shower and then examines the few clothes she has at Kara’s apartment, deciding a comfortable black three-quarter sleeve shirt will go well with the only pencil skirt she has on the rack next to Kara’s button-up shirts. Lena grabs a granola bar from the cabinet, a snack she knows Kara keeps especially for her, and texts David to pick her up from Kara’s, taking Scout on a trip around the block a few times before their ride appears.

It’s a quiet day at L-Corp, unsurprising for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Jess has the day off, at Lena’s insistence, and it’s a little strange to exit the elevator on her floor and not see the assistant at her desk. The office phones remain forwarded to the answering service for the holiday weekend and there are no appointments scheduled so Lena has all the time she needs to get her work done. 

Scout sniffs the room with his usual gusto once he’s off the leash, then takes one of his toys and climbs up on the sofa with it. 

Lena sighs. She knows he’s comfortable, but she doesn’t want to let him get in the habit of climbing on the furniture at work. Home was another story entirely - she loves when he curls up beside her on the couch or lays over her ankles in bed, the “no dogs on the furniture” rule quickly giving way to the warmth and occasional lick that came with a puppy laying next to her - but the office was different. 

“Scout, off,” she requests, and the pup scrambles down from the cushions, toy falling to the floor behind him, and gobbles up the expected treat that Lena tosses his way. “Why don’t you take your toy to your bed, okay, buddy? Place,” she says, pointing to the dog bed near her desk. The Rottweiler plops down immediately and Lena chuckles as she walks over to pick up his forgotten toy. She hands it to him and the puppy braces it between his front paws, chewing happily. 

Settling behind her desk, Lena unlocks her tablet and opens her laptop. She takes a deep breath, readying herself, and begins to research.

The hours tick by. When she needs a break, her eyes beginning to feel the strain of reading from the screens, she gathers up Scout’s leash and they go for a walk. She stews over the details, keeping one eye on her pup to reward him for looking back to check in on her and making sure he doesn’t bowl over unsuspecting pedestrians, though he’s been getting better about dropping into a sit before being allowed to go say hi, and she goes over everything she’s read over the past two days. 

There’s nothing concrete, of course. With the benefit of already knowing Lillian is the head of CADMUS, a couple of the intricacies of the attacks scream Lillian Luthor, but that’s not a connection anyone else would have made and she can’t use inside knowledge. 

And if there’s not a trail, nothing that she could point to or piece together to show the authorities that Lillian’s in charge of the terrorist group… _even if there were a trail, that’s not hard evidence. She’d find a way to get out of it._

“Good boy,” she smiles at Scout, and he wags his tail, walking at her side as they return to L-Corp. 

Lena taps her fingers against the elevator wall as they ride back up to her floor. She knows Lillian will be like Lex, probably worse, in that she will have to be caught red-handed. Identifying a pattern or highlighting suspicious activity won’t be enough. 

It’s catching her in the act, or nothing at all.

Forty minutes later, Lena knows what she has to do. 

Kara won’t like it, Lena herself doesn’t even like it, but it’s the only way. 

*****

The liquid bubbles under the heat of the flame, but when the contents are poured into the small ampule and mixed with the binding agent, it congeals quickly, clinging to the sides of the glass as the reaction completes. 

“Do it again.”

The man’s eyes grow wide. “We’ve been at this for days,” he reminds her, and Jeremiah raises both eyebrows at the technician’s foolishness in talking back, “it isn’t working. This is an _alien_ formula, it isn’t just something we can -”

Lillian rolls her eyes, draws the handgun from Jeremiah’s holster and shoots the lab tech in the heart. His body sags and his head hits the table on the way down, denting the metal, rattling the beakers and dishes. 

Jeremiah takes his weapon when she offers it back and he replaces it in the holster at his side. “You knew working with a virus of Kryptonian design wasn’t going to be easy.” He waves for two guards to remove the body. “Making this into a gaseous compound with the materials we have on Earth is tricky.”

“Tricky, but not impossible.” She shakes her head at the mess and reaches for a nearby cloth, wiping the blood spatter from her arm and chest. “This is what I get for trying to delegate. I’m just going to have to do it myself.” Lillian sighs and tosses the rag to the side, rolling her sleeves up to her elbows and pulling a pair of latex gloves out of the box on the supply table. “Get me two more tech -” she pauses when her phone rings, the sound muted by her pocket, growing much louder when she pulls it out to examine the display.

An eyebrow arches sharply at the caller ID, but she accepts the call. “Lena, what a surprise.”

“Hello, mom.” Lena clears her throat softly and Lillian curls her lip at the sound. “Listen, I was wondering if we might be able to meet.”

Lillian blinks. She and Lena haven’t spoken in almost a year and, to be honest, she hadn’t expected to hear from the woman for another several years. Lena’s position on Lex was perfectly clear, had been from the start, or near to it, and there was nothing she could think of that needed to be discussed. “Where?”

“I’ll be here at the office all day.”

Blue eyes scan the mixture and components on the table before her. “No, I won’t be able to make it today. I’m in the middle of something at the moment and I simply can’t get away, I’m afraid.” She tries for cool politeness. “How about tomorrow morning?”

“That’s fine,” Lena says, “just come to L-Corp whenever you can. I’ll let the front desk know to expect you.”

Lillian smirks. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning at LuthorCorp,” she states, and hangs up. 

Jeremiah has his arms folded across his chest. “What does Lena want?”

“I have no idea,” Lillian admits, shaking her head. “Could be nothing, but I doubt it.” She puts her phone in her pocket once more and pulls on the gloves. “Bring me three more technicians. We have to get this ready tonight.”

***** 

After a full day at the shelter, Kara is relaxed and happy and covered in pet hair. She brushes herself off, chuckling at the dog and cat fur that flies into air, and snorts as a few pieces tickle her nose. 

Rudy, a small terrier mix still on stray hold, jumps at her leg and whines for more attention. Kara grabs a handful of treats from the bag at her waist and then pulls her phone from her pocket, swiping open with one hand and texting Lena to ask if she’s busy. The read receipt tells her Lena sees the message and bubbles appear on the screen, indicating she’s typing a response. 

Rudy scratches at her calf, then settles into a sit, nudging her with his nose. 

Kara continues to look at the screen, but from the corner of her eye, she waits for the moment that Rudy pulls his nose away, before he gets the chance to whine or jump up again, and she puts a treat near his mouth. He takes it eagerly, chasing the hand for more, but she keeps her closed fist near her stomach, waiting for Rudy to display the calm behavior she wants to see. 

_Just finishing up a few things here,_ Lena replies to the text, _then Scout and I are heading home._

Kara grins and taps to place a call. “Hi, babe,” she smiles when Lena answers. She gives Rudy two more treats when he settles down. 

“Hello, darling. How are things at the shelter?”

“It’s all good, I’m just hanging out with Rudy for a little training after they had dinner here,” the dog gets another treat, “and I wanted to call and hear your voice.”

Lena smiles, charmed. “Everyone there has had dinner? What about you?”

“Well, I was thinking maybe we could get something together? Or I can bring over some leftovers from yesterday.”

“ _Are_ there any leftovers?”

Kara scrunches her nose, caught. “Um, not really.”

“That’s what I thought,” Lena laughs. 

“I did you save you a little though, if you want.”

A fond smile grows, though Lena knows Kara can’t see it. “You did?”

“Sure.” Two more treats for Rudy, then the last few in her hand are tossed across the floor for him to find. “So, I can bring - oh, hang on, um, someone else is calling.” She pulls the phone away from her ear, surprised to see Maggie’s name on the display. She taps the icon to switch to Maggie’s call. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Kara, there’s been an incident.”

Kara’s heart drops. “Alex?” she whispers. 

“No, Alex is fine. It’s the bar… there was an attack.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“No,” Maggie insists, “you can’t. I’m at the crime scene now, I’ll take care of things here. I need you to report to the DEO.”

Kara frowns. “What? Is the NCPD working with -”

“Not exactly.” Maggie sighs, breath crackling through the speaker. “Listen, just get to the DEO, okay? J’onn will have more information for you there.”

“Yeah, okay.” Kara ends the call with Maggie and puts Lena back on the line. “I’m sorry, I have to go, something came up.”

Lena is used to the Supergirl emergencies by now. “Okay, be safe. Call me when you can?”

“Of course. Good night, sweetheart.”

Kara puts Rudy in his kennel, locks the shelter, and departs in a flash. 

*****

J’onn is standing in the operations center and she strides toward him, cape swinging behind her. “What’s going on?” she asks. “Maggie called but didn’t give me much detail.”

“Dr. Hamilton is performing the autopsy now, we should know more soon.”

Kara blanches. “ _Autopsy?_ What happened?”

J’onn sighs. “I’m sorry, I thought Officer Sawyer might have told you the basics. The alien bar was attacked, witness statements indicate it may have been some sort of virus.”

“Witnesses? There are survivors?”

“None of the humans were harmed… but all of the aliens were killed.”

“Oh, Rao.” Kara runs a hand over her face. “How many?”

“Twenty-seven.” He speaks as gently as he can, recognizing the agony in her posture. “Officer Sawyer called us when she got to the scene and we transported one of the bodies here for examination.”

“Does Alex know? She might be able to help.”

J’onn narrows his eyes. “Your sister is a veterinarian.”

“Alex studied exobiology, she treats animals from this planet and others. She can help.”

Having realized that it’s pointless to argue with the Kryptonian, J’onn just waves his hand and Kara calls her sister.

*****

When Alex arrives, it’s with Eliza in tow. 

J’onn pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Mom specializes in astrobiology,” Alex says, by way of explanation. 

“Not like we’re a classified government agency or anything,” he sighs. 

“Not like I haven’t known about the existence of your classified government agency since the night you came to my house, threatened my daughter, and took my husband,” Eliza snaps.

J’onn clenches his jaw, but nods once. 

“That wasn’t -” Kara begins, but J’onn holds up a hand. 

“More important things, Supergirl.” He gives Eliza a steady gaze, trying not to be confrontational. “We would appreciate any help you can provide, Dr. Danvers. You as well, Alex.”

Alex puts her hands on her hips. “So what are we dealing with?”

“Twenty-seven aliens are dead,” Kara says, her voice cracking, and Alex grabs at her arm. 

“From what?” she demands, and glares at J’onn. “Is my sister safe?”

“As far as we know, it was contained to the bar, but we’re taking precautions,” J’onn assures her. “I'll take you to Dr. Hamilton, she can tell you more.”

*****

Kara paces around the table in the operations center, waiting to hear from the women in the morgue. 

Logically, she knows the DEO must have always had a morgue, but she'd never really thought about it before, and imagining one of her friends from the bar on the table is increasing her anxiety exponentially. She needs to know what caused this so she can stop it before anyone else is killed. 

“Supergirl,” Agent Vasquez says, breaking through the furious thoughts, “can I, um, get you a glass of water or something?”

Kara pauses, curious at the offer, the first of its kind from the brunette. 

“You just seem kind of stressed,” she continues, licking her lips, and Kara can hear her heartbeat tick faster in her nervousness, “which I totally get, but, is there anything I can do?”

After a long moment considering the request, Kara asks, “Do you have any doughnuts?”

The agent grins. “Logistics brought like three dozen this morning, I'm sure there are still some left.” She taps another agent on the shoulder as she takes off her headset and he nods, taking over monitoring the video feeds while she steps away. “Be right back.”

Kara returns to her pacing as Agent Vasquez heads down the corridor, toward the elevators. 

Alex, Eliza, and Dr. Amelia Hamilton exit when the doors slide open, and Alex keeps the doors from closing as Vasquez steps inside. 

Kara meets them halfway. “Well?”

Dr. Hamilton tilts her chin toward J’onn’s office. “I need to inform the director, too,” she reminds Kara, “so let's talk in there.”

J’onn stands when they enter. The office is small, with only two chairs besides the one behind the desk, and no one takes a seat. 

“It's definitely some kind of virus, but there are no indications it spreads from organism to organism, so the quarantine protocol can be lifted,” Dr. Hamilton begins. “The lockdown in the morgue is not necessary.”

J’onn nods. “That's good news, right?”

“Sort of,” Alex sighs. “We’re pretty sure it needs to be dispersed as some sort of vaporous or gaseous compound, meaning it's weaponized.”

Kara crosses her arms over her chest. “So this was definitely an attack. Someone targeted the alien population.”

“Yes. How the virus was able to affect only alien physiology, we don't know yet,” Eliza admits, “but we’re still looking.”

“This might help,” comes a voice, along with a knock at the door jamb. Maggie holds up a plastic evidence bag with a square device inside. “Cleared it with my bosses to let you guys have the first crack at this.”

“Thank you, Officer Sawyer.”

Maggie shrugs. “Wasn't a hard sell when the captain realized we had zero idea what it was.” She hands it off to Alex, who squeezes her hand briefly. “And Kara, there's a box of doughnuts over there that has your name on it,” she adds, pointing toward the operations center. 

Kara smiles for a moment. 

“Mom and I will get started,” Alex hefts the device, “but we might need Winn’s technical expertise.”

J’onn doesn't even try to fight it this time. “The more the merrier, apparently.”

*****

Winn jumps at the chance to help, even though he doesn't know any of the details until he arrives at the DEO. He leaves James with a long kiss and a promise to make up the interrupted date night. 

“I’m going to hold you to that,” James assures him, and then urges him out the door. 

He's just as devastated at the news of the attack on the bar. “I heard something about that on the news on the way over,” he notes, “but details were scarce. They didn't say anything about targeting aliens.”

“NCPD is trying to control the story so we don't have panic,” Maggie explains.

“Hm,” is his noncommittal response to that. “Okay, let me at this baby,” he reaches for the device in the bag, “and let’s see what we have.” 

Familiar with all the tools available at the DEO, Winn scans the device thoroughly before he begins to disassemble it, ensuring they will always have a record of each piece and how they all went together. Thirty minutes later, he's got all the parts laid out across the table in the medical bay, Alex and Eliza watching him work. 

“Okay, so it was definitely released as an aerosol.” He picks up what used to be the canister in the center of the device. “This still has some residue, I'll leave that to you ladies.”

Eliza takes it carefully, placing it next to the microscope, scraping some of the residue onto a slide. As she examines that under the magnification, Alex begins gathering her own samples for other tests. 

Meanwhile, Kara is devouring the doughnuts Vasquez left for her, box labeled with a sticky note that just said _Supergirl_. There were ten doughnuts, Kara suspected Vasquez gathered remnants from a few different offices, but now there are only two left and Kara has no qualms about reaching for her ninth. 

_Stress eating_ , she acknowledges, _don't care_.

It's late now, nearing eleven. Kara knows she could probably call Lena and she’d still be up, reading in bed, maybe, possibly watching the news but not as likely. 

She stuffs the last doughnut in her mouth. 

_Lena **did** ask me to call, I bet I can talk to her for a few minutes real quick, that would calm me down better than these doughnuts… delicious as they are._

Before she can reach for her cell phone, Alex, Eliza, and Winn emerge from the lab, looking grim. 

Kara swallows her mouthful of doughnut. “What is it?”

“They deployed the virus as an aerosol,” Winn explains, “and it would have spread very quickly, especially through as small of an area as the bar.”

“Can we create a vaccine or something? How do we stop this?”

Alex exhales slowly. “We need to know more about the virus before we can start talking about a vaccine.”

“I did isolate the protein code from the residue Winn found in the device.” Eliza’s eyes are gentle when she meets Kara’s, and Kara sets her jaw, preparing for more bad news. “The virus is Kryptonian in nature.”

Her initial reaction is disbelief. “That's not possible, how could someone create a Kryptonian…” She thinks back to a few days prior, when she was being held captive. “Rao, that's why she took my blood.”

“What?” Alex breathes. 

“CADMUS, they used my blood to get in.”

She's already spinning on her heel, heading for the automatic window, when Winn asks, “In where?”

“The Fortress of Solitude,” she calls back, and launches into the sky. 

*****

When she has to destroy Kelex, that cements her suspicions. CADMUS had definitely violated the Fortress. The heavy boot prints still in the snow tell her it was Hank Henshaw and he came alone.

She steps over the broken robot, sparing a thought for the loss of another reminder of her home planet, and frowns at the state of the control panel. Broken glass and dried blood.

 _Brute force_ , she sighs, _no surprise_.

“What did you want here?” she murmurs, calling up the last command entered. “Medusa,” she repeats the phrase, but it clarifies nothing. She pulls up the holographic interface that will give her the same information Hank received. 

An image of Zor-El flickers into view. 

Kara feels her breath leave her lungs. “Dad?” She sees her mom’s image almost daily, can and has spoken to her numerous times, in English and Kryptonian, and it hurts, but she's used to it. This is unexpected and it stings. 

“Hello, Kara. What do you wish to know?”

_Too many things._

She shakes her head, trying to focus on why she's here. “Um, what is Project Medusa?”

Kara can't believe what she's hearing. A joint project between the Military and Science Guilds? A _weapon_ designed by her father specifically to kill aliens? A weapon he felt was justified? 

_This is not the man I knew… did I really know them at all?_

It's a painful thought and the uncertainty weighs heavily on her heart. 

“Now your _perfect weapon_ is in the hands of my enemy,” she sighs, ending the session, taking a few moments to pace, hands flexing in frustration. 

When she feels as though she can breathe again, she finds an empty data crystal and slots it into the controls, copying the information on Medusa. It doesn't take long, the rate of crystal optical transfer remains many times faster than anything Earth has developed so far, and then she storms out of the Fortress, hoping something from the records can be helpful. 

Maybe something from her planet can turn out useful rather than causing more harm, but she's too hurt to believe that.

*****

The work begins in earnest. It's three a.m. and dawn is still several hours away, but no one hesitates when she returns with the information on Medusa. Kara tries to get additional details from her mother’s hologram, but it becomes too painful only a few sentences in and she retreats to the cargo room for some time punching holes in concrete.

“Created to kill non-Kryptonians,” Eliza repeats, more to herself, as she juggles samples in the lab. “I imagine they altered the formula to exclude humans this time.”

Alex pulls off her gloves, finished collecting the last remnants of the canister. “They must have access to a pretty advanced lab if they're _changing_ an alien virus in less than a week.”

“Let’s get some more simulations running,” Eliza requests, “I want to take a look at their options for dispersal based on the original formula. That tiny device can’t be all they have planned.”

Alex nods in agreement and keys up the information. 

Winn sets the parameters for a number of simulations and schedules them to run in a few hours, planning to head home and sleep for a while, then spend the rest of the day at the shelter. He leaves Alex with instructions to text him if they need his help interpreting results. 

“So, do you want to tell me what's going on here? Or am I going to have to pull the mom card?” Eliza asks, when it’s just her and Alex in the lab again.

Alex blinks. “What are you talking about?”

Eliza puts one hand on her hip. “Neither you nor your sister seemed surprised to hear about Hank Henshaw’s visit to our house, but I know I’ve never told you.”

“Oh.” Alex bites her lip. “We found out a while ago. So we knew. About that. When you said it.”

“Alexandra Danvers.” The words are firm and Alex flinches at the use of her full name. “The complete truth. Now, please.”

 _How am I nearly thirty-years-old and the mom voice still works?_ She caves, nodding slowly. “Okay, you're right.” She closes the door to the lab. While everyone has known the truth about J’onn’s existence since he revealed himself a year prior, the details are still close hold and Alex won't be the one to divulge that to the workforce. “Hank Henshaw came to our house that night, but the man out there,” she hooks her thumb towards the operations center, “is not Hank Henshaw.”

Eliza requires an explanation, of course, and Alex provides it as best she can. Eliza gets hung up on the _life on Mars_ part, which Alex expected, but then she listens closely, piecing together the information into a picture of not just the man who calls himself the director of the DEO, but of her husband. 

“They never gave us a body,” is the first thing Eliza says when she finishes, and Alex draws a breath and holds it. “From the start, I doubted it when they said he died in a helicopter crash. Sacrificing himself for someone else? That, I can believe.” Eliza shakes her head, a small smile on her face. “You know, some part of me always held out hope, even after almost twelve years, that he might still be alive.”

Alex bites her lip until she's near to tasting blood. _He's alive, I know it, I have to believe that, but if I'm wrong… how can I put you through that? But I can't let you suffer not knowing, thinking this is the end of his story, thinking his life ended in that jungle._

“I keep that same hope,” she says, at last, and if Eliza notes the present tense of the sentence, she doesn't comment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Eliza? Yes, please.
> 
> I replied in the comments, but I wanted to bring it out here -- as in the show, we will see Jeremiah again in this universe. I won't be revisiting all of season 2, but the events of several episodes will be seen, including 2x14 and 2x15, but that will be after several planned short(er) fics. So much outlined for this universe LOL


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lillian visits for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor spoiler for a scene from 2x12.

By nine-thirty in the morning, after a night of restless sleep, Lena is having difficulty remaining focused on the numbers in front of her. 

_I should have given her a timeframe,_ she sighs, selecting another tab on the spreadsheet. She’s used to an agenda for her day, meetings scheduled sometimes on short notice but still according to a plan… she dislikes this uncertainty. 

At just before ten, the door to her office opens and Lillian Luthor walks in. She is tall and elegant and Lena is struck by the memory of the first time she'd met Lillian. 

_Lionel had been kind as they were driven home. He sat in the backseat with her and asked questions about her favorite colors and if she liked ice cream and requested an introduction with the stuffed bear she clutched in her arms. He told her she would have a brother and a new mother, and that she would be a Luthor._

_She'd indulged his questions but grown shy at the mention of her new family members, eyes wide at the idea of a brother, wanting to ask if she could have a new brother and her actual mother, but knew it wasn't possible._

_The Luthor mansion was intimidating when viewed through the rear window of the town car but loomed even more so as she approached it. Lionel allowed her to keep her tiny hand in his and he squeezed it once, just before he swung open the door to what she would learn was the study._

_The boy was tall, she could tell that even as he was sitting, his torso giving him a lot of his height. He seemed to be playing a game and she was already intrigued. Then the woman stood, walking directly up to Lionel, giving Lena barely a glance, and Lena swallowed as she blinked up at her._

_“Lena, this is Lillian, your new mother.”_

_She was the tallest person Lena was sure she'd ever met and her perfume was strong and rich. “Lionel, I thought we talked about this,” was Lillian’s quiet but angry response, ignoring Lena entirely._

_Lena stepped closer to the table with the game board._

_“Do you want to play?” the boy asked, and Lena nodded, listening closely, following with her eyes as he mimicked the permitted movements of each piece. She absorbed the rules quickly - even at four-years-old, she liked rules as they told her what to expect, outcomes were pre-established and followed identifiable patterns, there was a comfort in routine - and then examined the board, finding the legal moves and then seeing what moves that would leave her new brother._

_Lena picked up the white knight and captured the black rook, removing it from the board. “Checkmate.”_

_Her brother raised an eyebrow, impressed. “You're a natural.”_

_“Hm,” mused the woman, and Lena tilted her head back to look at her, “perhaps you **are** a Luthor after all.”_

_Her voice was warm and even encouraging, and Lena smiled in return, only realizing much later that it was the closest to pleased she'd ever heard Lillian._

“Well,” Lillian sighs, reminding Lena of the much more common tones of exasperation or disappointment that come from her adoptive mother, “this is a depressing sight.”

Before she can reply to the barb, Scout scrambles out of his kennel, running up to Lillian and sniffing her shoes and the edge of her long jacket. 

“What's this?” she asks, her lip curled in disgust. 

Lena stands, a flash of concern that Lillian might actually strike the dog. “Scout, come,” and the concern turns to pride and relief when he abandons what must surely be exciting new smells and walks up to Lena, sitting promptly. “Good boy,” she praises, taking a treat from her desk and delivering it near his mouth. 

The pup takes the treat gently and swallows it with delight, tail brushing against the floor as it wags. 

“Kennel,” she requests, pointing to the open door, and he goes inside and lays down, blinking at Lena when she closes the door. He picks up a rope toy and just holds it in his mouth for a while. 

“He's going to destroy your office,” she declares, disapproval clear in every word. 

“He’s more well-behaved than some of the people that have come in here,” Lena replies, “and he’s definitely better company.”

Lillian rolls her eyes and crosses the office to investigate a bottle of wine setting on the cabinet. “I read about you and your dog.” She pours a bit of wine into a glass and brings it to her nose, admittedly impressed by the vintage, though she doesn’t drink any. “I was sure you'd have gotten rid of him by now.”

Lena crosses her arms over her chest, trying to keep from digging her fingers into her arm, but it's a sign of personal anxiety she’s rarely able to avoid. “That isn't going to happen.”

Lillian moves on from the wine, tossing her purse on one of the chairs across from Lena’s desk. “Ah, I see. You've _adopted_ him, is that it? Now you’re stuck with him?” Her mouth curves into a small cruel smile. “You've never been able to care for things, Lena. It simply isn't who you are. It would be better to take him back now, before either of you grow more attached.”

Her jaw clenches, hard. She wonders if Lillian is talking about Scout or if she's trying to allude something else. _She isn't supposed to know about Kara_ , and her heart rate spikes. _She's just being disparaging because she can tell I love Scout. It isn't about anything else. She doesn't know._

“Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way,” she tries to move past the barb, “let me ask: what the hell are you up to?”

Lillian tilts her head, shifting to innocence. “We haven't spoken since Lex’s trial. I thought this might be a chance for us to reconnect, perhaps you called to make amends - it _is_ Thanksgiving, after all. Apparently I was mistaken.”

Lena barely manages to keep from rolling her eyes. “You're up to something. There's a pattern, someone's going to notice.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Lillian retrieves her purse and heads for the door. “Call me when you've gotten rid of that animal.”

“So glad you stopped by,” Lena sneers under her breath, dropping into her chair with a sigh when the door is closed. 

It opens again a few moments later and Lena’s head snaps up, fearing Lillian has returned.

Jess pops her head in the office. “Um, was that your mother that just left?”

Lena nods. “Yes, she… Jess, what are you doing here? It's a holiday weekend.”

Jess shrugs. She steps inside, leaning the door shut. “I know you usually work holidays and I wanted to take care of a few things anyway.”

“I told you to stay home.”

“You told me to stay home yesterday. I did.” She glances at the puppy in his kennel. “Did he do something wrong?” 

“No, he's fine. My mother doesn't like dogs.” _He’s safer this way._

Jess makes a face, as though this confirms her dislike of Lillian Luthor more than anything else she's heard about the woman. “Is there anything you want me to do today?”

“I suppose _go home_ is out of the question.”

“I've got a few things to work on for next week,” Jess replies, with a small smile. “I’ll be at my desk if you need me.”

***** 

Kara leans against the balcony, staring out at the city. It's nearing dusk, which comes early as the calendar readies for December, but it's one of Kara’s favorite times of year. The air is crisp nearly all day, cool and sharp with the occasional breeze.

The view here, from the city headquarters of the DEO, reminds her a lot of her room in Argo City. The crystalline structures, the hum of the pods as they flew around - she could still remember the sound of her father’s pod when he came home - the bustle of robots and citizens going about their day. 

She takes a slow, deep breath. She remembers. And she misses it. 

“How much more did I miss?” she sighs, dropping her head forward. Her father, building a weapon? Her mother, imprisoning her own blood for speaking out for their planet? 

_I should have seen the signs._

“Much nicer than the stalactites at our last office,” J’onn says, walking up behind her, standing a few feet away. “Here, the lives that we are charged with protecting are always in view.”

She smiles, accepting the offer for what it is. She considers that the attack at the bar probably rattled him too. “It reminds me of the view from my room on Krypton. I could see the whole city, or so it seemed. But now,” she shakes her head, frustrated at her naïveté, “I wonder if I ever saw anything at all.”

“Your father thought he was designing a weapon for defense. He wouldn't be the first scientist to have his design twisted for a different use, especially by the military.” He rests his arms on the railing, clasping his hands together. When he turns his head to gaze at her, she thinks she can see a kindness there. “They were doing what they thought was best.”

“Surely they knew better,” Kara counters. “I know my Aunt Astra brought Krypton’s instability to my mother, and if she knew about Project Medusa, she'd have taken it up with my father directly. Is this their legacy, then?” She clenches her jaw, forcing the tears back. Her hand touches her crest and she wishes it stood for all the things she'd once believed. “Death and destruction across the universe? Stranding criminals here and creating viruses to wipe out entire populations?”

“With hindsight, they may have made some poor decisions. But that's history, not legacy. _You_ are their legacy, Kara Zor-El.” He raises one eyebrow slightly to emphasize his point. “And you would make them very proud.”

Kara tilts her head, surprised yet touched by the confidence. She opens her mouth to speak, but before she can find the words, Alex’s voice rings out. 

“We know how they’re going to weaponize it,” her sister says, hurrying up the few stairs to the balcony. When she didn’t see Kara at the operations center, she knew the next place to look would be the balcony; even as kids, if she couldn’t find Kara at night, she knew to climb to the roof and find her staring at the sky. When in doubt, the girl from the stars will always return as close as she can.

Eliza isn’t far behind her. “The formula calls for a dispersion agent that can only be found on Krypton.”

Kara raises both eyebrows, grasping for a sign of hope. “So they can’t mass produce it on Earth?”

“Mm,” Eliza shakes her head, “there is an analogous element. Isotope 454. It’s incredibly rare. It’s manufactured exclusively by L-Corp.”

Kara runs both hands through her hair. “If CADMUS gets their hands on it, they'll be able to spread the virus across the entire city.” _Twenty-seven dead will be a drop in the bucket._ She takes a step toward the railing, preparing for flight. “I have to get to L-Corp before they do.”

“Wait,” J’onn cautions. 

Kara huffs a sigh, itching to be on her way. “What?”

“If Lena Luthor is manufacturing this isotope, we have to consider she’s aware of its use and may be supplying it for -”

Her cape sways as she pulls her shoulders back. “No.” 

“I told you, we need to treat her as hostile until -”

“Stop! Lena is _not_ a threat.”

J’onn holds up a hand. “You’re too close. You’re not being objective.”

“What’s this about Lena?” Eliza asks, eyes darting between the two angry aliens. 

Kara puts her hands on her hips. “He thinks Lena is involved with CADMUS. Which is _ridiculous_ , but he -”

“Supergirl, Director,” Agent Vasquez calls, sprinting across the room toward the group, “security at L-Corp just hit the alarm.”

“Damn it.” Kara takes off, not even sparing a moment to glare at J’onn. She climbs quickly, reaching an altitude that’s safe for her to fly at full speed without damaging buildings below, and rushes to L-Corp. _Too much time_ , she berates herself, heart in her throat. _I wasted too much time arguing with J’onn and, what, worrying about the actions of my parents almost forty years ago?_

She can hear the alarm and lets it urge her faster. She scans the building with her x-ray vision, trying to find out if Lena is in the building. She racks her brain, trying to remember if Lena said anything about working over the weekend, then realizes she’s been so distracted since the bar that she hasn’t spoken to her girlfriend in almost twenty-four hours, and she feels tears burn behind her eyes. 

There’s movement in the lobby that draws her attention. Stuart, the night guard, confronting the guy that probably caused him to flip the alarm. He’s grabbed by the shirt and thrown across the room.

She swoops in, trying to shove the door open instead of breaking the pane, but her focus is on reaching Stuart before he hits the ground and she hears the glass crack. She makes quick calculations, judging his trajectory and rotation, coming around slightly in front of his path, slipping her arms underneath and pulling him close. She lands gently and sets him on his feet. “Go,” she says quietly, and he nods, running to an emergency exit deeper into the building. 

Kara wishes she could evacuate the civilians, wishes she could check for Lena, but the hooded man in the center of the room draws her attention. 

“I should have known you’d show up,” he growls, and Kara clenches her fists. 

“Yeah,” she snarls, “you should have.” She rushes him, hoping to get an advantage, but he meets her head on, grappling, his cybernetic strength nearly matching her own. They trade blows and she thinks she might be getting an upper hand when he grabs her arm and slams her into the large L-Corp statue.

She’s stunned for a moment, groaning at the ache in the back of her head. The cyborg is distracted by movement that Kara registers peripherally, and she pushes herself up to one elbow, trying to clear her vision. 

He lifts the broken section of cement. 

There’s a heartbeat in her ears that is not her own. 

_Lena._ Kara’s head snaps up, registering that Lena has walked into the lobby, that Hank has noticed, and that she is now his target. 

He hurls the half-ton of cement directly at the CEO. 

Kara speeds to intercept the projectile, putting herself in front of Lena, throwing her arms across her face to take the brunt of the impact with her forearms. It turns to dust when it hits her and she’s a little hurt, head still buzzing from the first throw, and she stumbles to one side. “Get out of here,” she urges Lena, rushing back into the fight so Hank doesn’t set his sights on Lena again.

“You spend all this time trying to save the world,” he taunts, as they’re alone in the lobby once more. He intercepts her attempt at flying past him and grabs onto her wrist and then her shoulder, slamming her into the ground. He pins her down, his knee against her belly, and she struggles against his hold. “Who’s going to save _you_? No one is coming to _your_ rescue. The humans don’t care about you - they just want you and your kind eradicated.”

The main doors burst open, shattering the pane that Kara’s entrance had cracked, and a dozen of National City’s finest pour into the room, Maggie at the front. 

“NCPD, get your hands up,” she orders. Given Supergirl’s resistance to bullets, once they’ve ensured the area is clear of civilians, they’ve been given the green light to engage, and only a few seconds pass before the sound of gunfire echoes all around. 

Hank turns his head, more irritated by the gunfire striking his back than hurt, but Kara uses the momentary shift in focus to her advantage. She hooks one leg around his ankles and swings her hips, rolling over abruptly, taking his feet out from under him, and he lands hard on his back. 

He sighs, deeming the effort a lost cause. Too many people now. He could eliminate them all, but Lillian doesn’t want such a high body count - not for humans, anyway.

It means walking away without the isotope, but the primary instruction has always been _don’t get caught_ , so he decides it’s best to call a tactical retreat. Most of the officers are in swat gear, well armored, but the little one at the front, the female, she isn’t wearing as much armor. He uses the weapon Lillian installed in him, the laser in his eye - he is Cyborg Superman, after all, it wouldn’t do to go without laser vision - and it’s a direct shot to her unprotected shoulder.

“Maggie!” Kara hurries to her side, kneeling and throwing her cape over the woman in case Hank tries to take another shot. 

The team spreads out, but Hank uses the confusion and concern over the injured officer to make his escape. 

“He’s gone,” they report, clearing the lobby and adjoining hall and stairwell. 

Maggie moves the red cape away from her torso and tries to sit, but hisses at the pain. 

“Come on,” Kara says, scooping her up, “I’ve got you.”

“I don’t need a personal flight,” Maggie protests, grunting as she’s jostled into position. “I can just take a cruiser to the hospital.”

Kara waits until they’re some distance in the air before she replies. “One, that type of injury is going to be a little hard to explain. And two, Alex is already at the DEO, she’d kill me if I took you somewhere else for care.” 

*****

As it is, Maggie gets an earful from Alex. Dr. Hamilton looks her over and decides the wound is minor enough that it just needs to be cleaned and stitched up, no surgery necessary. 

Maggie is relieved she doesn’t need surgery but not thrilled at giving her girlfriend access to sharp objects and permission to stick them in her skin. 

“You could have been killed,” Alex says, starting on the first stitch, and Maggie grimaces at the pressure. 

The drugs are helping, so it isn’t exactly painful, but it’s definitely uncomfortable. “Weren’t you the one who called me and said to get every available unit to L-Corp?”

Alex arches an eyebrow. “Note: I didn’t say _you_.”

Maggie scowls. “I’m not going to send in my guys unless I’m right alongside.” She grunts as the third suture is pulled through. “That’s not how it works.”

“Really? Then tell me how it works, Maggie.” Alex tugs the last stitch, pulling the edges of the wound together, and ties it off, snipping the excess. “Tell me how it’s supposed to work when you rush in with only your vest on. Tell me what I’m supposed to do when you get yourself killed!”

“Whoa, hey,” Maggie grabs Alex’s wrist before she can storm away, “wait a second. I’m hurt, yeah, but it’s not that bad. What is this, Alex?”

“I just…” Alex lays the needle and small scissors on the metal tray nearby. “I haven’t, I haven’t slept, and Kara’s call only said you were hurt, and I… Maggie, I _asked_ you to send people in there, I asked you to be backup for my sister, and what if…”

“Okay.” She understands now. She sits up slightly, testing the limits of the drugs to dull the pain, bringing Alex closer until their foreheads touch. “Okay, baby. I’m right here.” She brushes her nose against Alex’s cheek, concerned to find it slightly damp. “I should probably stay for a little while, don’t you think? Doctor’s supervision and all that?” Maggie kisses the corner of her mouth, smiling when Alex responds with a kiss of her own. “Why don’t we find a room with a bed and you can lay down with me?”

Alex pulls away, glancing out in the hall, where Kara is talking with Eliza and J’onn, Winn chiming in on speaker phone, if she had to guess. “I can’t, there’s so much -”

“There’s always so much,” Maggie agrees. “But for now, there’s rest. Come on, babe. Please?” She plays up the wooziness, just a little. “I could use some company… and maybe some cuddles?”

Alex sighs, brushing Maggie’s hair away from her face. “Okay,” she says at last, “but just an hour.”

*****

Winn is on his way in to create a program that will track the isotope, Maggie is patched up and miraculously managed to convince Alex to take a nap, Eliza is eating a sandwich from the cafeteria, and J’onn is avoiding her.

 _Nothing more I can do here,_ Kara sighs, and makes her way to L-Corp, landing on the balcony outside Lena’s office less than a minute later.

Scout scrambles to his feet when he sees her outside, which means Lena is unsurprised at the gentle tap on the glass. She waves without looking up and the chilly night air filters in for a moment when Kara steps inside. 

“Hey, buddy,” she says, speaking gently to Scout, and turns slightly so the dog can approach and sniff her cape and boots. “Are you okay?” she looks to Lena as Scout investigates her different scent. 

“I’m fine. Thanks to you.” Lena stands and reaches out, smiling when Kara steps into her touch. “And I didn’t say that yet, did I? Thank you.”

Kara kisses her palm. “I should have been here sooner,” she mutters, but it’s low and followed by more kisses near her thumb, so Lena doesn’t push. 

“How is Maggie? I heard some of the officers talking before they left.”

“She’s okay.” Scout bumps her calf and she reaches one hand down for him to smell, scratching his chin when he puts his head in her hand. “Minor injury. She’s actually resting with Alex right now.”

“That's good.” Lena runs her fingers through the long blonde hair, heart thudding almost painfully when Kara closes her eyes and simply absorbs the affection. “How are you?”

Blue eyes blink open. “I'm okay.” When Lena only arches a disbelieving eyebrow, Kara sighs. “Not really. I… have you heard about the attack downtown?”

Lena frowns. “What?”

“Last night. CADMUS attacked the alien bar.”

 _I'm in the middle of something._ Lillian’s voice rings in her head and Lena fights a wave of nausea. “How bad?”

“Almost thirty dead. They,” Kara takes a shuddering breath, feeling Lena clutch her closer, “they used a Kryptonian virus my father designed, solely targeting aliens.”

“Oh my god.” 

“That's why they came after L-Corp tonight. They need an isotope made here in order to spread the virus. Isotope number 454.” Kara meets her gaze. “Tell me you don't have any.”

“We have a stockpile,” she admits, and Kara’s shoulders sag, cape swinging briefly. Lena presses a long kiss to the edge of her jaw. “It’ll be okay, darling. I doubt they'll come back again tonight.”

Kara shakes her head. “I should stay here. Just in case.”

Lena caresses her cheek, touched by the offer, but she knows she can't allow it. The second part of her plan has just had the timeline moved up. “I'd rather you go home and sleep.”

“I don't need sleep,” Kara counters. 

“What about dinner? When did you eat last?”

“I had some pizza at, um, noon?”

“Please eat something,” Lena whispers, tracing the shell of her ear. “I’ll text you when I get home, okay?”

Kara leans forward, pressing her forehead against Lena’s shoulder. “Promise?”

“I promise, darling.” She kisses the side of her head. “Get some food and then maybe rest for a little while.”

“Yeah, okay.” She kneels down slowly, patting Scout a few times before pushing open the door to the balcony and taking off into the darkening sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still finishing up chapter eight but I've set aside my whole weekend for writing so hopefully it'll be ready to go on Sunday.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lillian's second visit and the launch of Medusa.

Lena sits back in her chair after Kara leaves, taking a deep breath, trying to fight the headache forming behind her right eye. She tilts her chin, cracking a few vertebrae in her neck. She ends with a sigh, turning her head and blinking slowly at the puppy curled up in the back of his open kennel.

“What am I going to do with you?” she whispers, tapping her pen against the desk. 

She can't decide what's best. She can leave Scout in the office, in his kennel, if she's feeling optimistic that things will work out and she’ll return soon. On the other hand, she's loathe to expose him to Lillian again. 

She could take him home and kennel him there, but she doesn't want him to be alone for a long time if something happens. She's sure Kara would take care of him in any situation, but she suspects a poor result for the evening would mean Supergirl could be injured or at the very least, distracted and very busy. 

She sighs again, pressing three fingers just above her right eyebrow. 

Jess knocks softly on the door and then steps inside. “Ms. Luthor, is there anything else you need this evening?”

Lena stares at her. “No, I… actually, there may be something. I have a personal favor to ask. It's completely alright to say no, okay?”

Jess nods her understanding, a little concerned. Her boss has never asked for a personal favor before and Jess can see the telltale lines that indicate she's suffering from a headache. 

“Would you be willing to take Scout for the night? I'm sorry, I'm swamped here tonight and I want to stay until I get this cleaned up so we don't have to deal with it on Monday.” Lena leans forward in her chair. “He’s very sweet, as you know, he seems to like cats, and you're welcome to take the kennel here from the office if you need. You can have David take you to my apartment if you want to get his food.”

Jess is smiling before Lena begins explaining how good-natured the puppy is, which she does, in fact, know very well. “That's fine, we can have a sleepover. We’ll stop at the pet store on the way and I’ll pick up a few cans of his food.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

Lena shakes her head. “I'm sorry, I just don't think I’ll be able to -”

“It's really okay, Lena.” Jess furrows her brow, waiting to see if her boss is going to comment on the use of her first name, but she just smiles softly. “Would you like me to take him now?”

“Whenever you're heading out for the night. One more quick walk to relieve himself would be good, in case he gets anxious by the change in routine. If you have any problems, you can text me, okay, or Kara.” Lena grabs a pen. “Here, let me give you her number.”

Jess chuckles. “I have Ms. Danvers’ number.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Do I want to know what you two are texting about?”

“Mostly your lunch order,” she grins. _And how you work too hard and sometimes Kara asks for a good time to interrupt your work and convince you to go home._

Jess gathers Scout’s leash and treat bag and then takes the fire hydrant toy, one of his favorites. 

Scout perks up when she begins to shuffle things around and he recognizes the sounds and movements as indicators it's time to go home. She clips the leash to his harness and he shakes once, ears flapping, gaze roaming to Lena as if to ask, surely she's coming with them?

“Remember, text me if you need anything.”

“We’ll be fine,” Jess assures her, and clucks her tongue at the puppy. “Let’s go, Scout. Want to go shopping, hm?” He exits the office, following Jess easily as she hands over a few treats, and when she closes the door so he can't see Lena any longer, Jess relaxes and slings her purse over her shoulder.

“I bet we can find you a special treat at the pet store tonight, can't we, big guy? Aunt Jess will be your favorite, you just wait and see.” She leads the puppy into the elevator, talking softly the entire way.

Lena exhales slowly. She's nervous about leaving him with Jess, not because she doesn't trust the secretary, but she worries Scout will manage to make a mess of something and the resulting frustration would strain her relationship with Jess. 

_We’re just beginning to find a good balance between friend and boss, I think,_ she sighs. _Please don't let me lose that already._

Putting that out of her mind - Scout will be safe, that's what matters - Lena focuses on the next play. 

The first step is bringing the isotope up from storage and making sure there's enough. Then, it takes about an hour in the lab for Lena to make the necessary adjustments. She slips the isotope into the padded carrying case and heads back to her office. 

It's a little unnerving when she realizes she's going to try to outsmart her mother. It took years for Lex to slip up enough to be caught and jailed, and Lena is certain his genius pales in comparison to Lillian’s. 

_And you expect to get her caught on the first attempt?_

If Kara is right, and Lena isn't doubting her, then Lillian is the head of CADMUS, which means she's responsible for the attack at the gala, and the press conference, and likely even the helicopter… and now the attack on the alien bar. 

Lillian is dangerous, that’s true. She’s skilled at developing complex strategies and attack plans and she’s probably three steps ahead which means none of this is going to end well for Lena…

But being in the dark is even worse.

_There’s no choice. I have to try._

Better to get a hand on what she’s planning, try to stay apace if not a step ahead. 

Lena picks up her phone and calls her mother for the second time.

*****

“Twice in one day?” Lillian chuckles, striding into the office. “Be careful, or someone might mistake us for family.” She glances around the office, noting the empty kennel. “Got rid of the dog already?”

“You didn't need to send your henchman,” Lena sighs, refusing to respond to the comment about Scout. _The less Lillian thinks about him, the better._ “There’s no need to put my employees in danger.”

Lillian is nonchalant. “I don't know what you're talking about.” 

Lena taps a finger on the briefcase situated on her desk. “You could have just asked me.”

There’s a heavy silence as Lillian gauges Lena’s sincerity. She raises an eyebrow. “Just like that?”

“Just like that,” Lena confirms, opening the case. 

“How did you know which isotope to select?”

Lena gives a slow smile. “Supergirl told me. She wanted to _warn_ me so I could safeguard it.”

“I didn't think you believed in the cause,” Lillian says, slightly suspicious. Her daughter had always been a bleeding heart and she’d protested Lex’s methods, there had been arguments that made Lillian wonder if Lena wasn’t a friend to the aliens - nothing to indicate Lena would support their efforts. 

“Maybe it's time you got to know your daughter a little better.”

Lillian considers her options, weighing the possibility that Lena is hiding something, but the last piece of her plan, nestled in foam padding two feet away, is hard to ignore. “You never marketed that alien detection device you created.”

Lena tilts her head, acknowledging the truth in the statement. “The prototype had too many flaws, I couldn’t get the sensitivity consistent enough to move forward with development.” She shrugs. “I couldn’t let the first L-Corp invention be a flop, so I pulled it, though unfortunately a few news outlets had already gotten wind of it. It’s still in the R&D phase - I haven’t scrapped it entirely, but it’s on the back burner until I can figure out the problem with the detection algorithm.

“I’ve heard a little something about what you’re working on, and I thought I could help.” Lena motions to the chemical, then closes the case. “But if you’re not interested, that’s fine. I’ve certainly got my own projects that can utilize 454.”

Lillian stills, racing through the potential outcomes of her next choice. “Come with me,” she says at last. “I’ll show you our next step toward salvation.”

Lena carries the case out of the office. Standing near her mother in the elevator ride to the ground floor is easier than she thought it would be. 

She's not panicking; on the contrary, she feels calm and capable. 

She has a plan, one which will save Kara and the other aliens, and there is no other option except to carry it out precisely. 

*****

Winn alerts the team that the isotope is on the move. 

“I'm on it,” Kara says.

J’onn steps up beside her. “I'm going with you.”

Kara shakes her head. “If the virus is dispersed, it will kill you.”

“With the yield of whatever launcher Lillian is using, it would probably kill me no matter where I was in the city. I've had my time hiding in the jungle - I won't hide anymore.” He lifts his chin and sets his jaw. “This is my home now and I intend to keep it safe. I'd rather die trying than admit I did nothing.”

Kara swallows. _This better not be goodbye,_ though she knows he can't read her thoughts. Regardless of his stance on Lena, even though he withheld information about Jeremiah, he's someone she considers a colleague. Almost a friend. _I won't let it be goodbye._ “Let’s go.”

*****

Kara’s flight path falters when she finds Lena’s heartbeat so close to Lillian’s. Fear surges through her, the thought that Lillian captured Lena sending all sorts of terrible images in her mind. 

_No, **think**_ , she commands herself. _Lena’s heartbeat is elevated but only slightly. She's not hurt. Focus._

If J’onn notices her distraction and subsequent burst of speed, he doesn't say anything, he merely keeps up alongside her. 

When they land, Kara’s heart leaps into her throat. _Rao, a rocket? That's going to send the virus all over the city._

She notices Lena has her hand near the ignition and she relaxes slightly. The key is already set and only needs to be turned to engage the launching sequence, but Lena must have -

“Don't do it, Lena!” She doesn't mean to sound so panicked, but something is _wrong_. Does Lillian have some kind of control over Lena? Is there a weapon trained on her that Kara simply hasn't found? There must be some reason for Lena to act as though she's going to initiate the launch. 

“Why not?” comes the reply, in a tone Kara has never heard before. “I'm a Luthor.”

Lena cranks the key to the right and Kara doesn't have time to think about all the things she doesn't understand. 

“I’ll take care of him,” J’onn says, nodding to Hank Henshaw lumbering onto the scene. “You stop that rocket.”

Kara bends her knees and takes off with such force that she cracks the asphalt beneath her boots. She considers calling Winn, perhaps he could talk her through disarming the missile as he'd done when Indigo threatened the city, but that was when he knew the specs of the rocket. This one is a mystery to them. 

_Okay, just going to redirect it, then. Get it far enough away that the blast radius doesn't impact anyone._ She clenches her jaw. _That means I have to catch it. Come on…_ Kara urges herself to go faster, stretching her arms out, almost catching the tail of the rocket. Even if she can't get both arms around it to fly it away, she could at least knock it off course and maybe buy a little more time. 

She grits her teeth with the effort, calling up another increase in flight speed. 

The rocket explodes only seconds after she puts her hands on it. 

The blast tosses her through the air and she struggles not to black out. The red mist rains down over her city, each particle lethal to every alien but her. 

She hovers, watching it descend, feeling a wave of nausea laced with failure. 

_J’onn._ She can't let him die alone. 

Kara races through the sky, hoping she can beat the virus to the ground and keep him company in his last moments. 

She lands hard, taking out Hank Henshaw while she’s at it, shoving him against a cargo container, and hurries to J’onn’s side.

He turns to her with a small smile and puts a hand on her upper arm. “It's okay.” 

Kara stares at him. “You're not infected?”

“I don't understand,” Lillian mutters, “it worked perfectly last night. You should be dead,” she tells the Martian, “they should all be dead.” It hits her a second later, the difference between the dispersal agents, and her mouth sets in a firm, disappointed line. 

She glares at her daughter. “You,” she nearly snarls, “you switched out the isotope. You rendered the virus inert.”

“I did,” Lena confirms, smug in her victory, “and I called the police.”

She’d drafted the text to Maggie, _Locate my phone, CADMUS attack launching_ , and pressed send the moment the car pulled to a stop. She could only hope Maggie got the message, believed her, and was able to discover her location and send the officers necessary to respond. 

Lena takes a few steps back as the police officers pull up in their vehicles, drawing their weapons and ordering Lillian to put her hands up. She rolls her eyes at Lena and does as she’s told, sighing as she follows their instructions, ultimately ending up cuffed in the back of a police cruiser. 

Henshaw slips away between stacked shipping containers as the arrival of law enforcement draws everyone’s attention. Kara tries to listen for him, but without a heartbeat, there’s only so far she can follow his movements apart from the other noise of the city. 

“He’ll be back,” J’onn grunts, and she reluctantly agrees. 

“I’m going to check in,” she gestures to the lead officer who was trying to get her attention, standing awkwardly near his vehicle, as if uncertain he could approach the superhero. 

J’onn nods. “I’ll return to the DEO and inform them of what happened tonight.” J’onn moves a safe distance out of the way before taking flight. 

*****

After giving her own statement, seeing that Kara is busy clarifying information for the police officers, Lena returns to her office, drafting the press release that will be required in the morning. 

She’s putting the finishing touches on the document when she hears Supergirl land on the balcony.

The moment Lena stands and waves her inside, Kara scoops her into a hug. “Are you okay?”

Lena returns the embrace. “I’m okay.”

“What happened? Why did you… I know you changed the isotope, but…”

“It was the only way to guarantee her arrest. Even if I’d had the blueprints for the rocket or designs of the virus, it wouldn’t be enough. She needed to actually pull it off but obviously I couldn’t let her hurt anyone.”

“What about you? You could have been hurt.”

“Better me than every alien in National City.” _Or the world..._ once Lillian realized the delivery method and virus were an effective combination, there was no doubt she’d start mass production. 

“Wh…” Kara steps back. “You… Lena, you don’t mean that.”

“That I would sacrifice myself to save thousands? Of course I mean it.” Seeing Kara’s disbelief, Lena crosses her arms. “How is that so different from what you risk every day?”

“I’m Supergirl!” She begins to pace. “I was sent to this planet to protect it, to watch over its inhabitants. You... you’re _human_. You’re here to live, and thrive, and…”

“What would you have me do, then? Let them die while I could do something about it?” Her mouth is set in a firm line. “I won’t do that. You can’t ask that.”

“No, I know.” Kara groans, running both hands through her hair, pivoting on her heel. “I saw you standing next to Lillian and I thought she’d done something to make you part of her plot, I figured you had no choice but to launch the rocket, and I was going to have to stop the bomb before I could get back to you… but then it exploded in my face and I just…” 

She shivers for a moment. “Twenty-seven off-worlders died last night because of that virus and I, I thought I was losing everyone.” _Again._ “And I was so scared that she’d finish whatever the cyborg started at L-Corp and J’onn wouldn’t be able to help and…”

Lena grabs her arm, stilling the pacing. “You were scared because you didn’t know what was going on.” At Kara’s nod, she sighs gently. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before.” She squeezes her hand, tangling their fingers together. “I couldn’t let on that anything was wrong. She had to believe I supported her.”

Kara leans forward and exhales against Lena’s neck. “Please don’t do that again. Not, not the saving people thing, because I am… Rao, I am ridiculously proud of you, you were brilliant and amazing,” _and you’ll never understand what it means to me, what you did to save them all_ , “but… talk to me next time? We can plan together.” She pulls back and Lena swallows hard at the tears shimmering in blue eyes as Kara cups her face with both hands. “I just want to keep you safe.”

“We’ll work together next time,” Lena promises.

Kara nods, relieved, and pulls Lena close again, breathing her in. 

“Here,” Lena says after long minutes curled in Kara’s embrace, “see how Scout is doing. He's with Jess tonight,” she explains, and grabs her phone from the desk, unlocking the device and handing it to Kara.

It isn’t long before the caped superhero is reduced to small noises, squeaks of something that sounds like _adorable_ and _Rao, that’s so cute_. “Aww, he loves Theo,” Kara smiles, showing the photo to Lena, who chuckles at the image of her pup curled up next to a large orange tabby cat. Jess texted at least a dozen pictures from various angles, the dog on his back with Theo near his head, Scout giving Theo a play bow and asking for fun, Scout happily eating from his Kong, and the most recent one was of Scout curled up on the couch, the outer edge of Jess’ jean-clad thigh barely visible. 

“Jess says he’s being a good boy and she gave him a fish skin, and then Theo demanded one,” Kara reads from the text messages, tracing her finger over the photo as if she were patting Scout’s chest. 

Lena watches the change. Even as Supergirl, given just an image of a happy, peaceful dog, and her shoulders drop, the tension there not gone but significantly lessened. Kara takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly, one corner of her mouth turned up in an unconscious half-smile. Lena slips a hand under her cape, resting against her lower back.

Kara puts her head on Lena’s shoulder. “I love you.” She smiles at the long kiss Lena presses to her hair. “Want me to take you home? Winn is watching the shelter tonight and in the morning, I already did my debrief, and anything else can wait until tomorrow.”

“Home sounds good.” _It would be better if you were there,_ she sighs to herself, but she doesn’t want to push the issue. This is the first time Supergirl has had a life-threatening mission since Lena knew who she was… the fight with the monster the press dubbed Parasite took place just a week before Kara told her. When that reality sank in, when Lena saw a clip of _Supergirl’s recent highlights_ that made the rounds on social media and realized the superhero, who’d been severely injured in the dangerous fight, was her girlfriend, and there were in fact a number of things that could hurt or possibly kill her… well, Lena had needed a moment. 

Then she’d given Kara a ten-minute hug the next time she saw her.

But this is fresh and recent and Lena doesn’t know the post-mission protocol. Does Supergirl need to be alone? Does she have to be checked out by whatever agency she works with? (Lena suspects it’s the DEO based on the NDA she signed after Kara revealed her identity as Supergirl, but they haven’t actually discussed it yet and she isn’t going to push.) Maybe she prefers to patrol a little, unwind with something familiar? Or forget being Supergirl for a minute and spend some time as Kara Danvers, sitting in the shelter and spending time with the animals? 

Whatever it is, it’s something she’s done numerous times and no doubt has a routine that she likes to follow, which has never previously involved Lena Luthor in any capacity, so Lena has no reason to expect that -

“Do you, um, can I stay over?”

She blinks, torn from her thoughts. “What?”

Kara offers a hopeful smile. “Is it okay if I stay with you? I mean, I know I was at your place already the other night, but I, I’d really like to be with you tonight.” _And wake up with you beside me in the morning, when I know you’re safe._ Having the woman in her arms the moment she wakes is the best option, the most immediate form of reassurance, rather than listening for her heartbeat or sending off a text message to check in on her. 

Lena smiles, a fluttering in her stomach at Kara’s desire to spend time with her, at how in sync they seem to be. “Yes. Yes, you can stay the night.”

Kara opens her arms. “Want a lift?”

“Is that… can you do that?”

Kara grins. “Of course! I can take you anywhere you want to go.” She bounces once on her toes. “Smoothest flight you’ll ever have, I promise.”

“Home is fine, for tonight,” Lena says, reaching a hand up to curl against Kara’s cheek. “With you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We always end in fluff! :) 
> 
> Today is the one year anniversary of my first posted Supercorp fic, so I think it's appropriate to post the final chapter of this fic tonight. All told, this brings me to a little over 200k words of Supercorp in a year - not sure if I can beat that this year, but I'll try! This ship is so much fun.
> 
> This fandom is amazing, thank you all for the incredible support, and thank you to all the wonderful artists, authors, and creators of content that share their works.

Kara lands gently outside of Lena’s apartment, settling Lena on her feet, smiling into the kisses that she’s offered. “I love you,” she murmurs, hands soft against Lena’s waist. 

At first, every declaration of love both thrilled and worried Lena. In the beginning there was a flash of doubt, disbelieving that Kara could _know_ , and, when it became clear that Kara was steadfast, the uncertainty shifted to a pang of guilt at her inability to repeat the phrase, but she soon realized that the hero simply couldn’t help herself. It seemed Kara wanted to express her feelings, nothing more and nothing less, and Lena finally relented and allowed herself to enjoy the adoration without a twinge of guilt.

Now there is just a growing fondness every time she hears the words. She kisses the blonde again and then pulls at the hero’s cape. “Inside,” another tug, and she moves aside to open the balcony door, joy in her heart as Kara follows and places kisses at the back of her neck. 

Kara slides the door closed as they walk inside, and wraps her arms around Lena from behind when the woman comes to a stop a few steps into the living room. She kisses the spot underneath her ear. “You okay, sweetheart?”

She sighs heavily, leaning into Kara’s hold. “It’s so quiet without him.”

“I miss him, too.” Kara whispers the words, hugging her girlfriend carefully. “He’s having a great time with Jess, though. He’s safe and happy.”

“I hope so.”

Kara rests her chin on Lena’s shoulder. “Do you want to text Jess and check on him?” 

Lena hesitates, shifts a little. “No, he’s fine. I’m sure. He’s fine.”

“Why don’t you text Jess while I go change?” Kara suggests with a gentle smile, kissing Lena’s ear and then walking into the bedroom to remove her suit and pull on the pair of pajamas that were her own. She grins to herself, biting her lip, when it sinks in that she has clothes set aside at Lena’s apartment. She also knows that if she opens the cabinets in the kitchen, she’ll find a stock of her favorite snacks. 

_Almost eight weeks…_ she scrunches up her face as she thinks about that, removing her cape. _Is this too much for eight weeks? It doesn’t feel too fast, to me, but what about Lena? Rao, she met Eliza already, was that too much?_

Kara frets, moving slowly as she changes, and by the time she pads barefoot back into the living room, Lena is reclining on the couch with a glass of wine, having slipped off her own shoes. 

“Scout chewed a hole in Jess’ blanket,” she reports, with a sigh. 

“Uh oh,” Kara raises both eyebrows, “what happened?”

“She put him in the kennel she picked up but the blanket was on top, he pulled it down and now there’s a hole in it.” Lena gives her a bleak look when Kara sits beside her. “Jess is going to hate that I asked her to watch him.”

“Did she have a blanket for him in the kennel?”

Lena swipes through the photos Jess sent over the course of the evening. “I don’t think so.”

“I wonder if he actually chewed it, or was just trying to get himself a blanket, and put a hole in it when he pulled it into the kennel.” Kara blinks, refocusing on her girlfriend before she gets lost imagining the scenario and wondering at the behavior. “Regardless, is Jess mad?”

“She says she isn’t. She claims she put it on top so she’d remember to place it in there for him before bedtime, but he got impatient when she was taking a shower.”

“It’ll be okay then,” Kara soothes. “Jess likes him. She understands he’s a puppy.”

Lena looks doubtful. She sips from her glass, leaning back into the cushions.

Kara takes Lena’s hand and brings it to her lips, placing soft kisses along the lines in her palm, following to the pad of each finger and back to the center. “Have I told you,” she asks, warm breath caressing delicate skin, green eyes watching her intensely, “how much I love you?”

Any restraint Kara had about how often she spoke to Lena about how she felt was gone, those reservations disappearing the moment Hank took aim at Lena’s head and threw a half-ton of concrete. She’ll still respect Lena’s wishes if the woman asks her to stop, of course, but given an option, Kara decides she would rather make sure Lena knows, always, how deeply she is loved. 

“Not for at least five minutes,” Lena replies with a teasing smile, though Kara can hear her heartbeat skyrocket at the affections. 

“My mistake.” The kisses move to the inside of her wrist and travel slowly along her inner forearm. “I love you. You’re the most amazing woman. You are intelligent, and clever, and beauti-“

Lena grasps Kara by the nape of the neck and pulls her forward, lips meeting firmly. 

Kara returns the kiss for a moment before pulling away, reaching for Lena’s wine glass, stretching to set it on the side table near the couch. She smiles when she feels Lena’s hands slip under her shirt. 

*****

Lena closes her eyes tighter when she registers the sun on her face. For a moment, she considers grumbling at Scout for moving the curtains, but holds back, not wanting to wake the puppy if he’s still sleeping. And since she didn’t wake to a cold nose against her ear…

Her eyes drift open when she remembers that Scout isn’t at the apartment. He’s with Jess. 

_Oh._

The events of the previous few days come rushing back and she takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly. The risk she’d taken had paid off. All of the aliens in National City were safe, at least from Lillian, for a while. 

Lena isn’t naive enough to believe it will be Lillian’s last effort, and CADMUS might even continue working on plots while their leader is in prison, but for now, she’s just thankful that Kara is safe.

She snuggles against the woman at her side, the reason she left her blackout curtains open for the morning rays to filter in, her Kryptonian girlfriend craving the yellow sun.

Lena scoots a little closer, shifting until she can rest her head on Kara’s chest. She lets the strong, steady beat beneath her ear calm her. 

“S’okay?” Kara asks, voice low.

“Go back to sleep,” Lena urges.

“You’re awake.” She clears her throat. “S’wrong?”

“Just thinking, darling. You don’t have to be up yet.”

Kara kisses the top of her head twice. “Whatcha thinking about?”

“How much I enjoy waking up like this.”

“Hm. Naked?”

Lena smirks and taps her fingers against Kara’s stomach. The blonde is often silly when she’s trying to wake up in the morning. Lena suspects it’s a lack of filter, the prefrontal cortex not quite up and running. “I was thinking about you.”

“You like waking up with me naked?”

Another firm tap to her stomach. “More specifically. I like waking up here,” she brushes her nose against Kara’s collarbone, “because I can hear your heartbeat.”

Kara swallows. “Oh.”

Lena’s brow creases at the response. “Oh?”

“I, um, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.” 

She raises her head so she can see Kara’s face, and her frown deepens at the nervousness she sees there. “What is it?”

“I can hear your heartbeat. All the time.”

“I’m sure you can,” she says. She’s well aware that Kara’s powers include superhearing - the woman regularly opens the door before Lena can get close enough to knock and she knows the hero patrols the city listening for cries of help. 

“No, I mean, I…” Kara licks her lips. “I listen for it. Last night I followed it to find you at the port, and I, I use it to check on you, but… sometimes I just listen because it makes me feel better.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Why do you think I like waking up to _your_ heartbeat?” she counters. 

“Really?”

“It’s… comforting.”

The anxiety fades and Kara smiles brilliantly. “Yeah.” She presses a long kiss to Lena’s forehead. “Yeah, it is.”

Lena isn’t sure if Kara’s worry is about the heartbeat thing or if it’s more the general tension she seems to have concerning what she perceives as Lena’s discomfort about her powers. “You can listen to my heartbeat anytime, darling.”

“You’re too good to me.”

“Nonsense,” Lena replies, kissing her softly, ignoring her own hesitation about the potential for morning breath.

They exchange leisurely kisses until the chime from Lena’s phone distracts them. Lena makes a face at the device, trades two more kisses, and then reaches to the table for her phone. 

“Jess says she’ll bring Scout by at noon,” she reports. She checks a few other brief notifications and dismisses them as items that can wait until Monday. Placing the phone face down again, she lays on her back beside her girlfriend, smiling when Kara rolls closer and wraps an arm around her waist. 

The moment Kara snuggles close, her phone buzzes on the opposite side table. She whines and pulls the covers over them both. “It’s not even eight,” she complains, nuzzling Lena’s collarbone affectionately. “Make it go away.”

Stretching her arm, Lena can barely reach the phone and hooks the case with a finger, pulling it across to the edge where she can pick it up properly. She tilts the device and checks the screen. “It’s from Eliza,” she says. “Something about dinner?”

Refusing to move, Kara mumbles her passcode and kisses Lena’s neck. “What does it say?”

Lena knows her heart skips at the sign of trust, but hopes Kara will assume it’s due to the lips against her skin. “Mm, she wants to know if we want to get dinner with her tonight. She flies back to Midvale tomorrow morning.”

Blue eyes peer out from under the blanket and Kara blinks at her. “Do you want to go? We don’t have to.”

“I’d like to go, if that’s okay.” Lena kisses the tip of her nose, having to duck under the covers briefly. “I enjoyed spending time with Eliza.”

She squeezes Lena’s waist. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to go. It’s…” she licks her lips. “I know it might be kind of soon.”

“To meet your adoptive mother?” Lena chuckles. “The thought did cross my mind. I was nervous at Thanksgiving,” she admits, and Kara nods gently, “but she’s very nice.” _And it might be good to have an actual mother figure in my life. See if I can remember what that’s like._

Kara grins. “She really likes you.” 

Lena hums, unconvinced, but hands Kara her phone so she can reply to Eliza and make plans for the evening.

*****

By eleven-thirty, Lena has taken to watching her phone, waiting for a message from Jess indicating she’s arrived with Scout. 

Kara chuckles to herself, completely understanding her girlfriend’s impatience to have her dog home. 

Kara had been glad when Lena brought the Rottweiler puppy into the shelter, getting him off the streets and somewhere safe, and thrilled when Lena decided to adopt him, always happy when a pet finds a good owner. But seeing Lena truly enjoy her time with the pup, seeing her learn and apply the force-free positive reinforcement methods that Kara teaches, and seeing the growing bond between dog and owner… it never fails to bring a smile to her face. 

There’s a knock a little before noon. 

“It’s us,” Jess calls, and Scout’s tags jingle as he announces his presence with a whine and a jump at the door. 

Lena is up in an instant, unlocking the door and pulling it open. She takes three steps back and, having planned for this well enough and donned a pair of dark jeans and a t-shirt normally reserved for cleaning around the apartment, drops to her knees, arms open as Jess releases the leash and Scout barrels into her.

“Hey, buddy,” she scratches wherever she can reach as he wiggles, mainly his chest and sides, laughing at the eager kisses to her face, “I missed you, too, yes I did. I heard you were difficult last night, is that true? Did you give Jess a hard time?”

Jess chuckles, swinging the door shut as she takes a step inside, putting Scout’s fire hydrant toy on the counter. “No, he was fine.” She meets Kara’s gaze and they exchange an amused glance over Lena’s head, though the woman is paying them no attention. “He loved Theo and Theo just adored him.”

“What a good boy!” Scout jumps around behind Lena, tangling her in his leash, and she’s pulled over onto her back. She happily accepts the frenzied licks to her ear, the cold nose against her neck. “I’m happy to see you, too.”

Kara’s affection is clear on her face as she watches the woman and puppy play, Lena’s delighted laughter filling the apartment. Her blue eyes shine behind her glasses, a small unconscious smile on her lips. She’s still seated on the sofa, as she was when Lena opened the door, but she’s shifted forward to the edge, hands clasped loosely, blonde hair up in a ponytail but long enough to still rest over one shoulder. Her eyes track Scout as he bounds around but consistently return to her girlfriend, fondness filling her features whenever her gaze finds Lena.

Jess smothers a grin, covering her mouth with her hand, coughing twice. She’s only known Kara Danvers for just shy of two months, since the dog trainer began helping Lena prepare for her adoption of Scout, but it’s clear to Jess that the blonde is head-over-heels in love. She’s known Lena for almost eight months now, working as her assistant, helping Lena prepare L-Corp even before she officially moved to National City, immediately recognizing her boss’ work ethic and kicking her own up a notch in response. Lena is dedicated and focused and just as confident in the boardroom as she is getting her hands greasy building some piece of tech. 

For the longest time, Lena seemed nearly untouchable - sure, everyone knew about her brother and every few months someone tried to kill her, but she just kept on working, kept pushing L-Corp farther into the light. The first few months she worked with Lena, Jess was in quiet awe, scared to disrupt her workflow, scheduling appointments without question, gathering research before meetings and avoiding anything resembling small talk for fear of being seen as unprofessional in the eyes of Lena Luthor.

But when Lena found Scout, when Jess’ guard came down at the thought of her boss rescuing a puppy and at the chance to talk about her own pet, Jess saw the real Lena appear. The woman who flirted and blushed at the pretty girl from the animal shelter and accepted Jess’ gentle teasing more easily than Jess had ever imagined, allowed the shift in dynamic from assistant-boss to something nearing friends, and who thanked Jess sincerely when she penciled in lunch with Kara at least once a week. 

_That_ is the woman behind the CEO and Jess feels privileged to get to know her.

_Lena deserves this happiness, this little family she’s building for herself._

“Thank you for bringing him home,” Lena says now, giving up on trying to untangle herself from the excited puppy and simply unclipping his leash entirely so she can extract her limbs. “And thank you so much for watching him last night.”

“It really wasn’t a problem,” she insists. “I got some extra canned food and toys and stuff when we went shopping last night, so I’m fully prepared if he needs to stay another night down the road.” She smiles, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “And now he has a real bed of his own for the kennel, no more second-hand blankets.”

Lena gets to her feet, and Kara calls Scout to her for some attention so Lena can walk across the living room without tripping over the pup. She reaches into her purse for her wallet. “How much was all of that? Let me reimburse you.”

“I can’t be fun Aunt Jess if I don’t keep the cool toys and snacks at my house.” Jess waves her off. “It’s fine, I promise.” She ducks her head slightly. “Thank you for trusting him with me.”

Kara nods at the statement, rubbing Scout’s belly at his request. She remembers how concerned Lena was at the idea of leaving Scout alone at the apartment for the first time, when they went out for coffee, and knows that it took a lot for Lena to ask Jess to take Scout, to trust her to watch him and keep him safe. 

She files that away as something to ask about later.

“Would you like to stay for lunch?” Lena asks, but Jess shakes her head. 

“I’ve eaten, but thank you. Oh, Scout had a Kong with canned pumpkin,” she adds, “and it kept him quiet in the backseat as I drove.” She kneels and calls Scout to her, scratching behind his ears when he walks over, happily pushing his head under her elbow for more pettings. “We’ll do this again sometime, okay, boy?” 

The pup licks her chin in agreement, then returns to Lena’s side, leaning against her shins, eyes closing in pleasure when she scratches gently underneath his collar. 

Jess takes a step toward the door, then pauses and turns back toward her boss. “I saw the press release,” she says quietly, “it went out at nine this morning. Is there anything I can do?”

Lena gives her a tight smile. “No, thank you.” She tries to force the tension from her expression, knowing the source of her stress is not her hard-working assistant. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Jess nods. “Tomorrow. Bye, Kara.”

Kara grins and waves. “See you, Jess.”

Jess pulls the door closed behind her.

After a brief glance, Kara slides to the floor and Lena joins her, showering the pup with affection and playing fetch until Scout finally takes his toy into the kennel and declares it nap time. 

*****

Kara changes into khakis and a button-up, her usual attire, of which she keeps in a few colors at Lena’s apartment, and takes fifteen minutes to gently convince Lena that dinner with Eliza doesn’t require anything fancy. 

“Slacks?”

“Slacks would be good,” Kara agrees, sitting on the edge of the bed to tie her shoes, watching Lena go through her closet. “Or the jeans you’re wearing now.”

“No, not these,” she murmurs, more to herself, brushing off a bit of dog fur from her thigh. Lena rattles hangers, looking for a top to match. It was easier at Thanksgiving, though she’d agonized somewhat over the decision then, too. Now she feels like she’s dressing specifically to impress Eliza and she doesn’t want to disappoint. 

Kara bites her lip, debating. When a full minute passes, she gets to her feet and enters the walk-in closet, sliding her arms around Lena’s waist. “What are your top two choices, sweetheart?” She nuzzles her cheek. 

“Oh.” She quickly chooses two and pulls the hangers from the rod. “The purple or the red.” She turns to face Kara, who takes a half-step back to view the blouses Lena displays. 

“I like the red,” Kara says, taking the silky fabric between her thumb and index finger. “The purple looks good too, but I really like you in red.”

Lena smiles. “Red, hm?”

“Yep.” Kara kisses her. “Definitely.”

Thus encouraged, Lena strips down to change, laughing at Kara’s playful kisses against her shoulder blades. 

Scout barges into the closet, wanting to join the fun. 

Lena laughs again as Scout licks the back of her knee. “Feed this monster while I get dressed, will you? I’ve got a Kong for him in the freezer.”

*****

David picks them up from Lena’s in the limousine. She’d specifically requested nothing overly flashy, so he dressed in a normal suit instead of full chauffeur attire and chose the smallest of the limos, a sedan-style, minimal stretch, with seating for six. 

Kara spends the drive over to Alex and Maggie’s distracting Lena with recent tales from the shelter, including the pitbull-mix that likes to climb over the fence to visit his neighbor for snuggles. 

“So every morning when I go in, there’s Linus, curled up next to Rudy. Finally, we just started putting Linus in with Rudy before we close up for the night.” She looks to see if Lena is paying attention and returns the small smile. “I don’t want to let them be together all the time, in case they can’t be adopted together, but we’ve got a note in their files that they could absolutely go as a pair.”

“Does that happen much? People looking for two dogs?” Lena asks, as the car slows. 

“Not as often as we have bonded pairs, unfortunately.” 

David pulls to the curb and opens the rear door for Eliza, who climbs in and takes a seat which allows her to face Lena and Kara. She slips off her light jacket and places it beside her on the empty seat, smoothing her jeans and light blue blouse. Before she buckles the seatbelt across her waist, she reaches out, squeezing Lena and Kara’s hands briefly. 

“I’m so glad we can do this before I go,” she says, smiling kindly at Lena. 

“Me, too,” Kara agrees, and when Eliza releases her hand, she rests it on Lena’s knee. Despite the steady green eyes that warmed at Eliza’s greeting, Kara can tell she’s nervous, so she launches into more stories from the shelter, about how a shepherd mix named Buster is excelling at the training and showing a propensity for agility.

“I’ve got a foster that competes in agility with her Border Collies, so I think he can do really well there.”

“That’s great, honey. Do you have a picture of him?” 

Kara immediately pulls her phone out of her pocket and opens it to the camera roll, swiping through to a photo of Buster. They spend the rest of the drive passing Kara’s phone between the three of them as the blonde gives the names and a small anecdote for each animal. 

The limo slows again, then comes to a gentle stop, and the rear door swings open. Kara exits first, then takes Lena’s hand to help her out, smiling as David does the same for Eliza.

Eliza chuckles, accepting the man’s arm, so gallantly offered. “Thank you,” she smiles.

David ducks his head. “Yes, ma’am. Ms. Luthor, Ms. Danvers, message me whenever you’d like me to return.”

The restaurant, Mona’s, has a valet but they aren’t used to seeing a limo and there are a few whispers from the attendants as David pulls away.

The hostess takes Kara’s name when they enter and walks them to their table, where the waiter brings three waters and then takes their orders, promising to return shortly with the wine and flatbread appetizer. 

Eliza takes a sip of water and brushes her hair back behind her shoulders; it’s still blonde but strands of silver and grey are beginning to find their way into the mix and she debates again if she should start dyeing it. “So,” she begins, “tell me how you two met.”

Lena smiles politely. “Oh, I found Scout and I needed some place to take him, and my assistant recommended Kara’s shelter.”

“Yes, dear, you mentioned that Scout lead you to Kara. But certainly that wasn’t your only meeting before you started dating?”

“No,” Kara replies, taking Lena’s hand under the table, intertwining their fingers, “she came back to check on Scout a few times… then we got coffee together one morning.”

“That’s when I realized how much I enjoy listening to you speak.” Lena squeezes her hand. “You told me all about the shelter and some of your background in dog training, and we started talking about me adopting Scout.” She chuckles, remembering. “That was the first time Scout fell asleep on my foot. That’s kind of his thing now, he likes to put his head on my foot and drool into my shoe.” She makes a face at this, though the adoration is clear. “He’s done it at least another handful of times when we’re at work.”

Eliza brightens. “He comes to work with you, too? That must be lovely.”

Kara knows exactly what Eliza is doing and she loves her all the more for it. After a difficult weekend for everyone - and even if Eliza hadn’t been present for the argument between J’onn and Kara the day before, she’d seen the news report with the L-Corp press release about Lillian Luthor’s arrest - the last thing Eliza wants to do is bring up any difficult topics. The woman saw Lena interact with Scout and Kara on Thanksgiving and trusts those subjects are not only good for conversation but will help Lena feel comfortable.

The tension in Lena’s shoulders dissolves as she discusses her work and her dog, not even pausing when the waiter brings the flatbread and the bottle of wine. She talks about working with Jess to rewrite the company policy on bringing pets to work, which means Scout gets occasional playdates in the lunch hour with a service dog-in-training and a well-socialized companion dog, about how even the presence of the dog lying quietly in his kennel during meetings has led to a more relaxed atmosphere, and how everyone at L-Corp seems to adore the Rottweiler pup, always offering him pettings and biscuits when they walk in. 

“I caught the morning security shift exchanging tips on Scout’s preferred treat,” she laughs, anxiety fading, “and they showed me the notebook where they were writing down his reactions to the different kinds to make sure they got his favorite.”

Eliza claps her hands near her face, smiling broadly. “Scientific observation to ensure they buy him the treats he enjoys the most. That’s fantastic.”

“I’m finding more and more treat jars along our route from the front doors to my office.”

Kara chuckles. “That’s why you were asking me about lower calorie options you could buy in bulk.”

“Unfortunately not everyone can have ready access to a stock of blueberries, like Jess.” 

Their meals arrive and wine glasses are shifted to make room. Conversation ceases for a few minutes as they try the first bites, then picking up again as they all agree the food is delicious, and Lena makes a note to return to Mona’s in the future, given Kara’s enthusiastic enjoyment of the pasta dish she’d ordered. 

Lena asks more about Eliza’s work and her background in science, genuinely curious. 

Eliza accepts the question with a smile, shifting the topic to her time in college, deciding on a major (which took four tries), staying up until three in the morning the day she had to defend her thesis. “And it sounds crazy, when you remember this was before the Five Hour energy and whatever else is on the market, so I plied myself with coffee to stay awake, but it worked. So now whenever I finalize a paper for publication, I do a final edit and submit it at three a.m.”

“When you find something that works, you stick with it.” Lena lifts her wine glass in agreement. 

The waiter checks in on them, refilling their glasses, removing the empty appetizer plate.

Finishing her water, which the waiter refills before he leaves their table, Lena slides her chair back and gets to her feet. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” she says, resting her hand on Kara’s shoulder gently to let her know she’s okay. 

“You seem happy,” Eliza says, reaching across the table to grasp Kara’s hand when Lena is out of earshot. 

“I am,” Kara confirms. “I told you she’s wonderful.”

“I didn’t doubt what you said on the phone.” She remembers Kara’s first call, the day after the charity gala, and how the depth of her feelings for Lena were immediately clear. “But I see it, now.”

“I love her.”

Eliza chuckles, squeezing Kara’s fingers. “I see that.” She smiles at Kara’s light blush. “She loves you too, you know.”

Kara nods. Lena hasn’t said it, but it doesn’t matter; Kara _knows_. 

“Your heart is one of the most amazing things about you,” Eliza says slowly, considering her words. “You’re so good at taking care of others, sacrificing whatever is required, but… it’s so much more difficult to accept someone caring for _you_.” She thinks to the quiet moments on Thanksgiving. Most of them were Kara checking in with Lena but twice she observed Lena approaching Kara, hands gentle as she brushed back blonde hair or cupped her face, and though Eliza was at a distance where she was unable to hear any words spoken, Kara’s reactions were clear, melting into the affections. “I’m glad you’ve found her.”

She beams, a broad smile splitting her face. “Me, too.”

Lena returns to the table and reclaims her seat, apologizing for her brief absence. 

While they finish their meals, Lena returns the favor and speaks about her own college experience, tales of long hours and failed experiments and her favorite professor.

When they’re awaiting dessert (rather, Kara is waiting for dessert), Eliza clears her throat. “Has Kara told you about her history class?”

“Oh, no,” Kara groans, laughing and covering her face with her hands. 

Lena shakes her head. “I haven’t heard about this.” She strokes Kara’s hair, trying to soothe the sting of embarrassment. “We don’t have to,” she murmurs. 

Kara pats her knee gently. “It’s okay,” she assures her, “this is one of Eliza’s favorite stories. We can’t deny her this.”

The dessert arrives and Kara distracts herself with a gigantic slice of chocolate cake as Eliza talks. 

“Eighth grade, Alex and Kara are in a few of the same classes, including history… and history is confusing.”

“History is still confusing, by the way,” Kara chimes in, around a mouthful of cake. 

“Now, Kara is extremely intelligent,” Eliza smiles proudly. “Maths and sciences? No contest. Languages? Incredible. She has excellent memorization skills, but for some reason, US history eluded her. We had a parent-teacher conference where we heard about Kara’s paper on the Declaration of Independence, which got everything right, except the first signator.”

Lena raises an eyebrow. 

Kara sighs. “George Washington. I knew he was the first _something_.”

Lena chuckles. “Understandable, though.” She brushes a few crumbs from the corner of Kara’s mouth. “You didn’t exactly have eight years of United States history like your classmates.”

Blue eyes sparkle as Kara grins. Hearing Lena’s soft laugh, Kara tells another one, this time about when she was in tenth grade and an assignment about the Titanic earned her an A only because the teacher thought she was trying to make a political statement by writing as though it took place in 1962.

Eliza watches the interaction with interest, sipping her wine. She enjoys telling humorous stories of her children, especially to their significant others; Kara’s sense of humor, well-developed in Earth’s society to be slightly self-deprecating, is well-suited to accept the mild embarrassment. The gentle teasing is fun but it’s dangerously easy to go from teasing to mockery and Eliza likes the careful attention Lena shows, ensuring Kara isn’t truly hurt.

After the third tale, Eliza moves the conversation to their plans for Christmas, and when they’re back in the limo, they tentatively schedule a trip to Midvale for the holiday. 

“I’ll see you next month,” Eliza says, hugging Kara as tightly as she can, standing outside Maggie and Alex’s apartment building. 

“Yes, definitely.” Kara gently returns the embrace. “Love you, Eliza.”

“I love you too, sweetie.” She pulls back from the hug but holds her arms out to Lena, who steps toward her. “It was so nice to finally meet you.”

“Thank you for dinner,” Lena murmurs quietly, “you didn’t have to pay.”

“I wanted to take you both out, my treat.” She squeezes Lena’s shoulders as she wraps her arms around her. “Take care of each other.”

“We will.” The promise comes easily and Lena feels Eliza smile against her cheek. “Good night, Eliza. Have a safe flight home.”

“I’ll text Kara when I land. Good night, girls.”

Kara slips her hand in Lena’s as they walk with Eliza to the front of the building, making sure she’s safely inside the elevator before they head back to the limo. 

*****

The moment they’re home, Lena changes into tennis shoes and a t-shirt so she can take Scout for a quick walk before bed. He was clearly napping while they were out, given his sleepy yawn and the way he stumbles from the kennel when she opens the door, and Lena accepts this as a sign that he’s comfortable being on his own, even for several hours. Some part of her still worries every time she leaves him, but it’s easier each time she comes back and he’s unbothered by her absence.

He perks up at the sight of his harness and leash, absolutely awake enough for a walk.

Kara goes with them, taking advantage of the leisurely stroll around the block with her girlfriend, winding down after a hell of a weekend. As much as she wants to hold Lena’s hand, she knows she has Scout’s leash in her left and so she’ll need her right for doling out treats as rewards for good behavior, so she settles on simply walking side-by-side. 

Lena has the same dilemma but easily comes up with a solution, given Scout’s improving loose-leash walking skills and the sparsely populated streets on a Sunday evening. Moving the treat bag from her right side to her left, she puts the handle of the leash around her left wrist, not needing a strong grip in low-traffic areas, and takes Kara’s hand with her right. 

Kara is about to protest, when they come to a stop before crossing the street, and Scout drops into a sit automatically. Lena reaches into the pouch with her left hand and gives him a small bit of hot dog. Scout takes it happily, completely unbothered by the swinging leash near his face.

“Good boy,” Lena says with a smile, scratching the dark floppy ears.

It’s only a brief trip, one block over and back, just enough for Scout to sniff a few trash cans and do his business, but Kara is quiet the whole time and Lena notices. 

Lena removes Scout’s leash, harness, and collar once they’re home. He shakes vigorously, then pounces on his dinosaur toy and begins to chew on the tail. 

Lena sits on the couch to remove her socks and shoes, and Kara sinks down beside her.

They watch the puppy play for a few minutes and Lena waits patiently for Kara to explain what’s on her mind. 

Kara kisses her shoulder. “Why did you ask Jess to take him? Did you… what did you think would happen?” Her voice is quiet but Lena can hear the concern beneath her words.

“I wasn’t sure,” she sighs. “I just knew I didn’t want him stuck in the office or my apartment, alone, if something went wrong.”

A small sound escapes and Kara buries her face against Lena’s neck. “I almost lost you twice,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry. I should have gotten to L-Corp sooner. I should have stopped Hank before he escaped.”

Lena cards her fingers through blonde hair, scratching Kara’s scalp. “You saved my life.” She whispers but knows Kara can hear her clearly. “You were there exactly when I needed you.”

“Still.” Kara falls silent, pressing idle kisses against the soft skin each time she exhales. “You’re brilliant. I don’t tell you that enough.”

Lena snorts. “Says the girl from Krypton.”

“Yes, says the girl from Krypton,” Kara echoes, lifting her head to meet Lena’s gaze, ensuring she knows she’s serious. “I was going to be the youngest member of the Science Guild. I’ve been doing what you call calculus since I was four. I’ve built robots and cryptographic puzzles and engineered AI programs using crystal technology that Earth is decades from discovering, let alone mastering.”

Lena has so many questions. She distantly realizes she’s also a little turned on. 

“I’m not trying to brag, but I want you to understand who I am. I want you to know my own intellect. Do you believe me?”

Lena nods, unable to do anything else, the steady blue gaze never wavering. 

“Then believe this,” Kara says earnestly, cupping Lena’s face with both hands. “I didn’t come up with a black body field generator to destroy the alien weaponry. I didn’t think of giving Lillian an inert isotope. You. Are. Brilliant.” She smiles now, features softening as tears glisten in her eyes. “And I am in awe of you every day.” 

“Kara.” Her voice breaks and she swallows hard. 

“I love you.” Kara kisses her, soft and sweet. “You saved… you saved everyone. Including me.”

Lena shakes her head slightly, desperate to correct the record, to push away the undeserved credit. “The virus wouldn’t have affected you.”

“No. But I…” Kara takes a deep breath. “I would have lost them all… again. Due to my father’s creation. I don’t know how I would react to that,” she admits. 

Green eyes snap to hers and Kara looks down briefly, then clenches her jaw and meets Lena’s eyes once more. “Again?”

“I watched Krypton explode.”

“Oh, Kara.” Lena knows the story - of course she does, Superman told it long ago, everyone knew he left his planet when it exploded. But he’d been a baby. He had no memory of Krypton. 

She’s known Supergirl’s identity for about a month, and is beginning to grasp the fact that her gentle, dog-loving girlfriend is also National City’s hero who risks her safety on a nearly daily basis. But for some reason, it hadn’t yet clicked that Supergirl also experienced the death of Krypton, and, based on her interview with Cat Grant, she must have been old enough to remember. 

“I was twelve,” Kara says, before Lena can ask. “Kal-El, Superman, was in the pod before me. I went after him, to protect him, to care for him, to make sure he grew up with our culture and our knowledge and stories of his family.” She exhales slowly. “Krypton’s destruction was imminent. Kal-El’s pod’s thrusters engaged and he escaped, but my pod was pelted by debris and I got caught in the shockwave. I spun around and I had a view of my world dying.” 

“I can’t begin to imagine,” Lena breathes. Her hands clutch Kara’s tightly. 

“I don’t want to make you sad,” Kara protests softly, and Lena doesn’t realize she’s crying until Kara kisses away a tear. “I just want you to know what it means to me. Your ingenuity, your brilliance, your bravery… thank you.” 

Lena knocks her forehead against Kara’s, gently so she doesn’t actually give herself a concussion. “I have to admit, I’m very intrigued by all of your science knowledge. I can’t wait to work together.”

Kara chuckles. “I don’t know if the world is ready for a Super and a Luthor to join forces.”

Lena grins. “That’s what’s going to make it so much fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written from 14 October 2017 - 8 July 2018, with a long break in between (I tried to get it done by Thanksgiving, obviously that didn't work like I hoped). 
> 
> Thank you all for hanging out in this universe with me, hope to see you again with the next Scout fic!

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](http://y02mustang.tumblr.com/)!


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